NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 29 – Embakasi explosion victims will have to wait longer to receive compensation from the government as the disbursement of the fund now lies in the office of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir told MPs that sought clarity on the matter that the National Disaster Committee is following up on the matter saying the Energy docket has no budget to handle such concerns.
“As a government we have put the budget for such under NDC and that’s why the Deputy President announced they will compensated under the budget line raised to compensate Kenyans affected by disaster,” he said before the Senate Energy Committee.
CS Chirchir affirmed that his officers will swing to action to ensure that they follow up on the matter so that the affected families are compensated.
“It’s very difficult under the budget policy statement to put budget on such issues. Our officials sitting in NDC will follow up on Mradi incident to ensure affected families are compensated,” he noted.
Gachagua has said the government will support victims of the Embakasi gas tragedy. Speaking when he visited the scene, the DP said those culpable in the gas explosion incident will be held accountable.
Meanwhile,EPRA has suspended operating licenses to 49 Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) companies for non-compliance following Embakasi explosion incident.
An assessment audit done in all 138 LPG plants in the country where some were located within a radius of 200 meters from residential areas were rated risky posing danger to residents.
Appearing before Senate Energy Committee, Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir explained there exists gaps in surveillance as the enforcement department is understaffed.
“When we have two officers having to comb through Nairobi county both formal and informal settlement, it wasn’t possible.Thats why we have established a police force of 100,000 to enhance capacity,”he stated.
A huge chunk of the 49 LPG plants whose licenses were revoked were from Nairobi and Kiambu counties as a majority of them were within residential areas.
The recent efforts by EPRA came amidst push by legislators on laxity by the regulator to enforce safeguards to deter recurrence of Embakasi explosion incident that claimed seven lives.
“We learnt of the operation of illegal plant on the midnight that the incident happened. We had demolished the LPG plant before and if we arrested them before the incident happened, we would have averted this,” said CS Chirchir.
Enforcement loopholes for the regulator to ensure safe distribution and use of LPG has been linked to the Embakasi incident with EPRA decrying its currently understaffed to conduct enforcement.
“In Nairobi Metropolis which serves five counties is currently understaffed, we only have three officers to go round the formal and informal sector,”said EPRA Director General Daniel Kiptoo
Moving forward, EPRA has embarked on a multi-agency approach with the Ministry of Interior and National Administration in conjunction with devolved units to root out illegal filling plants.
Kiptoo admitted that they were caught off-guard in terms of surveillance on the Embakasi gas explosion incident as the illegal plant was being operated dead in the night.
“The site where the incident happened wasn’t licensed by us, it was operating as a garage by day and gas refilling plant by night but moving forward we have put in place short and medium target intervention,” he said.
EPRA DG expressed that housing policies by devolved units has interfered with regulations set by the authority with residential units being built in areas where refilling plants are erected.
“The risk sometimes is for us to shut them down as some of them are bleeding and its no fault of their own because they came before the human settlement,” Kiptoo said.
CS Chirchir pointed out that legal cases are imminent from LPG plants whose licenses were suspended yet from the onset they had complied with the regulations before mushrooming of human settlement.
“Some of refiling station were legitimately licensed but because human settlement had come in the two can’t co-exist. I am sure court cases will come out of that and that’s why we need to handle it carefully,” he noted.
EPRA absolved itself from blame in terms of licensing gaps saying the authority received three applications last year for permission to build a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage and filling facility at the site.
Kiptoo said they declined the three applications by Maxxis Energy in Nairobi because they did not meet the stipulated safety distances.
However, he pointed out that they had licensed the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage and filling facility for the same proprietor (Derrick Kimathi) in Nanyuki.
Three days before the Embakasi gas explosion incident, staff members of Maxxis Energy in Nanyuki were arrested for malpractice for illegally filling gas cylinders for other owners.
“We undertook our normal surveillance in Nanyuki where we found the facility conducting illegal business of filling gas cylinders of another brand owners and they were charged the next day,”
