NAIROBI, KENYA – Consolato Mucheke, 18, says he has never come as close to death as he did last Monday on a rainy morning in a slum of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
He had just finished breakfast and was hanging around his home in the Sinai slums when he saw his friends and neighbors rushing to the river with containers.
He didn’t need to ask what was happening. An oil pipeline that passes near the slum leaks occasionally, and the poor slum dwellers, eager not to miss an opportunity to make quick cash, typically rush to scoop the oil. This time, oil had spilled into a sewer that drains into the nearby Ngong River, and people were rushing to collect the valuable commodity at the edge of the river.
“I took two jericans and followed my friends,” he says, referring to narrow containers that hold liquid. “I found my father at the spot where people were scooping oil, but we didn’t talk. Everyone was scrambling for the commodity.”
Then, there was an explosion.
“Suddenly, there was a huge blast, and the whole place was engulfed in flames,” Mucheke says from his bed in Kenyatta National Hospital.
He was admitted to the hospital after suffering serious burns on his head and limbs in the fire.
“Everyone scampered for safety,” he says. “I ran despite poor vision and collapsed several meters from the river. I really don’t know how I survived. It was bad.”
He says he is lucky to be alive. Nearly all the people who were scrambling for the oil – mostly men – were later found or were burnt to ashes along the river. Some had jumped into the river to escape the flames, but the river, too, was on fire because of the oil that had spilled into it.
Mucheke says his father is still missing.
“My mother has visited all hospitals and morgues, but she has not found him,” says Mucheke, supporting his heavily bandaged head with his hand. “We are now hoping that the DNA tests being carried out will establish whether he was among those who died.”
Survivors say they are lucky to have escaped the fire that killed more than 100 Kenyans in the slum. Kenya Pipeline Company, the government-owned petroleum company here, has denied responsibility for the explosion, and the government has spent millions providing medical care and compensating those affected. Some say the underlying problem is the slums themselves, which create unsafe living conditions. Kenya Pipeline Company and the government have made efforts to remove people from the slums, but local politicians say residents must be compensated and provided with alternative and affordable places to live.
The fire occurred last Monday morning. Some reports indicate that a cigarette butt thrown into the oil-filled sewer caused the explosion.
More than 100 people were killed, and a similar number were injured as the fire spread to the densely populated slum. An unknown number of babies died at a nearby day care center, which was gutted by the inferno. Kenyatta National Hospital has been overwhelmed by the number of fire victims.
Mucheke’s neighbor, 13-year-old Samwel Wanga, also suffered serious head injuries. Samwel, a primary school student, says he wasn’t in school at the time of the explosion because of a doctor’s appointment that day.
“As I washed my clothes, I heard a huge bang and went to check what was happening,” he says. “As I rushed to the scene, I saw people running in my direction, and, as I turned back, I heard another blast, and the whole place was covered by flames.”
Like Mucheke, Samwel made it out alive.
“I continued running and escaped the flames,” he says.
But his mother, Anne Odemba, says others weren’t so lucky. Odemba, who sells chicken parts in the slum, says that some of her customers have been missing since the incident occurred.
Kenya Pipeline Company released a statement that a pipeline valve failed under pressure, allowing the oil to leak into the sewer. The statement expressed the company’s condolences to the people affected by the incident.
But Selest Kilinda, managing director of the company, says the company was not responsible for the incident and will not compensate victims.
“We have, however, began investigations to establish what caused the fire,” he says.
Esther Murugi, minister for special programs, said the government would provide 60,000 shillings KES ($620 USD) to families who lost loved ones, as well as coffins to bury them in. She said the government would also provide 10,000 shillings KES ($100 USD) to the 164 families who lost property in the fire, as well as pay six months of rent for families displaced by it.
She said the government had spent 11.5 million shillings KES ($120,000 USD) so far helping fire victims, with the funds allocated to Kenyatta National Hospital to enable its staff to treat victims.
The shacks that Mucheke and Samwel call home are made of old iron sheets and are at the center of the slum, which is sandwiched between a line of factories and the Ngong River in Nairobi’s industrial area. The houses are packed closely together, leaving little room for movement for the more than 1,000 people who live on the one-acre plot.
Mucheke and his family moved here from Mukuru kwa Njenga, one of the biggest slums in Nairobi, after his father acquired a small plot in the area.
Simon Mwendwa, who has lived in Sinai for 10 years, says the land where the slum sits was set aside as a dumping site for factories, but people gradually moved into the land and put up temporary structures. Indeed, on the opposite side of the river, there is a mountain of garbage, which Kenyans are also encroaching upon.
Half of Nairobi’s residents live in slums, according to Amnesty International. This is about 2 million people.
The slums lack basic amenities, such as toilets. Community latrines that have been built in many slums are not accessible at night because of insecurity. Residents are, therefore, forced to relieve themselves in polythene bags, which they later dump in the streets. Congested structures and a lack of roads make movement in the slums difficult.
Jabis Sundays of the Kenya Red Cross says firefighters had a hard time accessing the Sinai slum during last week’s blaze because of the lack of roads.
“We are frequently called to help in fire emergencies in the slums, and getting to the scene has always been a challenge,” he says. “Fires ignited by minor causes spread very fast and become major disasters because of congestion and illegal power connections.”
Kenya Pipeline Company issued an eviction notice three years ago, claiming that Sinai slum sits on its land where the oil pipeline crosses through. But residents refused to relocate.
“A 15-meter-wide strip of land is supposed to be left vacant on each side of the pipeline,” Kilinda says.
The Ministry of Energy also tried to get residents to relocate, but local politicians have opposed the government’s plans to remove slum dwellers from the illegal settlements, which they erect mostly on private land.
Gideon Mbuvi, the member of Parliament representing Makadara, the constituency where Sinai slum is situated, says he will not allow the eviction of the slum dwellers unless they are given alternative land and materials to build new homes.
“I’m not against the resettlement of slum dwellers, but I would like to see them compensated,” he says, denying allegations by Kenya Pipleline Company that the slum sits on an oil pipeline.
He accused the Ministry of Local Government of failing to provide conducive living conditions for slum residents.
His lawyer, Paul Muite, says that Mbuvi plans to sue the government, Kenya Pipeline Company and the City Council of Nairobi for the fire.
“We are waiting for the affected people to bury their dead and heal wounds before going to court,” he said at the scene of the fire last week.
Ferdinand Waititu, the member of Parliament in the neighboring Embakasi constituency, blames Kenya Pipeline Company for the Sinai fire tragedy, saying it allowed oil to seep into the sewer. He says he will oppose eviction of the slum dwellers.
“Everyone has a right to live in Nairobi, whether they can afford to live in a good house or not,” he says. “Slums will always be part of Nairobi. Even big cities in the world have slums.”
The government in partnership with the U.N. Human Settlements Program started a slum-upgrading project in 2003 to improve the living conditions of the residents. They completed the first part of the program in March 2011, which included 300 two-bedroom houses for residents of Kibera, the largest slum in the country.
The residents pay 1,000 shillings KES ($10 USD) per month for the houses, which includes the power and water bills, says Tirop Kosgey, Ministry of Housing permanent secretary. This amount is equivalent to what they pay for the makeshift structures in the slums. But Waititu says the rent is too high.
“This program is benefiting the rich because most slum residents cannot afford the rent,” he says. “The government should allow them to occupy the houses free of charge.”
Kosgey says the government hoped to eliminate slums through the program but is facing a major challenge, as beneficiaries rent the houses to richer people to earn money and move back to Kibera instead of living in them as the government intended.
“If they sublet and sneak back into the slum, we may not achieve the goal of improving the living standards of slum dwellers,” he says.
The government has also urged citizens not to collect spilled fuel, as this is not the first incident of this nature in the country. In 2009, more than 130 people died and hundreds were injured when a fuel tanker that had been involved in an accident along a highway exploded as they scooped the commodity in Sachangwan in the Rift Valley province.