Nakumatt fire: Workers to be charged

Some Nakumatt workers could face murder charges as they are suspected of having locked shoppers in the burning supermarket.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe on Wednesday said they were, however, likely to be substituted with lesser charges of manslaughter or criminal negligence at the courts.

So far 27 bodies have been retrieved from the rubble of Woolworths House in which the Nakumatt Downtown branch was located. The fire incident occurred on Wednesday last week.

Mr Kiraithe said detectives were looking for witnesses to stand in court and testify against security guards who allegedly shut the doors after the fire broke out, apparently to prevent looting.

Before the trial begins, the witnesses are expected to pick out suspects from an identification parade. While releasing names of some of the victims on Tuesday, director of police operations Peter Kavila said: “Investigations are under way to find out the circumstances that led to the fire as well as establish any criminal action that may have prevented the victims from escaping in time. We appeal to members of the public with information to come forward.”

“We are particularly investigating claims that a person or persons believed to be part of Nakumatt management prevented customers from escaping when the fire broke out,” he added.

By Wednesday noon, no guard or supermarket employee had been indicted for the crimes. Nakumatt’s operations director Thiagarajan Ramamurthy was interviewed by detectives at the Central Police Station for the past two days.

Investigations

He was ordered to report at the station everyday until investigations, expected to take a week, are completed. Head of criminal investigations at the police station Festus Malinge told the Nation that his officers would record statements from 98 employees who were at the supermarket at the time of the inferno.

The Nation further learnt that it would take much longer to establish the cause of the fire. The detectives have teamed up with experts from the Public Works ministry, Kenya Power and Lighting Company and the city council’s fire brigade.

Nine of the people who died in the fire tragedy have been identified while DNA testing is being conducted on the rest of the bodies at the City Mortuary.

Those positively identified by relatives and friends include two Ugandans, a Kenyan radio presenter and actress, two Nakumatt staff and a Mwea Irrigation Scheme employee.