Kenyan Slum Explosion – Update
13th September 2011
Kenya: On Monday 12 September, an explosion from a leaking pipeline in a Nairobi slum killed at least 120 people. Below are some reflections on the tragedy from CMS missionary Joe Radkovic, who ministers in the region:
“The fire was in a slum in an industrial area, about 5km from the slum I work in, so not close enough to directly involve me. The council tried to evict the people living over the pipeline in 2008, but the people refused, and were allowed to stay. Apparently some people tap the fuel pipeline to make some money selling the petrol, and have been lucky that it hasn’t blown up – until this week. So some spillage probably occurred that ignited and tracked back to the pipe and blew up those living over it – 120 men, women and children died at last count. The police put a net across the river to catch the bodies that had fallen into it, or that some of the burnt had jumped into to extinguish the fire on them, but died of drowning. Lots of people were burnt and injured as well.
“This was a big tragedy, even for here. We have 3,000+ people die on roads each year - about 60 every week - in some major road accident or many small ones. So accidents involving deaths are common and don’t rate much on the news. However this did! Even the police were shocked at what they saw. There were apparently the black charred remains of a lady carrying her baby on her back at the scene – both still recognisable and fused together.
“The fuss is likely to pass quickly, as it ‘only’ affected slum people and ‘no one important’. The authorities may clear the remaining people living in the area to show they are doing something, or they may not even be embarrassed enough to do that. Nobody is unimportant to God, and no one gets away with anything. The authorities should be shaking in their shoes. And the survivors will have to live with their loss and scars. If they are Christians, they know that there is more to life than this world. Who would really want to live for this world? It is sometimes such an ugly, terrible place, as this tragedy shows. I am not sure how people cope who only look to this life without the hope of a future with Jesus, as God’s adopted child, receiving every good thing all the time”.