NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s president says corruption and officials’ incompetence allowed a liquid petroleum plant to operate in one of Nairobi’s most crowded…
Kenya’s president says corruption and officials’ incompetence allowed a liquid petroleum plant to operate in one of Nairobi’s most crowded residential neighborhoods, where its explosion and fire killed three people and injured more than 280 others.
President William Ruto said the officials who gave licenses to the plant must be dismissed and prosecuted. Police are also looking for the site’s owners.
At least 24 people were critically injured when the huge fireball erupted from the gas depot late Thursday and spread rapidly in Kenya’s capital, burning homes and warehouses. Some gas cylinders were thrown hundreds of meters (yards), sparking separate fires.
Although at the time of the fire the site was operating illegally, Ruto said some licenses had been issued for the gas plant to operate in a residential area.
“It was very clear that it was the wrong thing to do but because of incompetence, corruption, they issued licenses,” Ruto told a gathering in the western Kenya town of Lugari.
