Queries on wisdom of tanker tragedy monument

The recently completed monument erected in memory of the 347 people who died in the Sachang’wan oil tanker tragedy has become a major attraction along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway. The Sh2 million monuments is a sight to behold and it has changed the face of the eucalyptus forest at the Lord Moor farm.

Caretaker Daniel Rono says the monument attracts more than 300 people from the surrounding areas every day while many others travelling along the road stop to have a look and pay tribute to the victims. Mr Rono says some 130 victims, whose names are engraved on the plague, were burnt beyond recognition and 78 of them were laid to rest in the mass grave.

Sixty-nine more victims of the oil tanker explosion died in different hospitals in Molo, Nakuru and Nairobi and were buried by their relatives. During the Christmas festivities, more than 500 people stopped at the grave site, with some saying prayers for the victims, some bringing flowers and others visiting out of curiosity.

The monument has however attracted mixed reactions based on the cultural burial rites of the communities whose members perished in the tragedy. While some support the idea of the victims being buried together, others are yet to come to terms with their relatives being married in polythene bags and in a mass grave.

“We have not accepted that our four children are among the people in that grave because according to our traditions we bury our dead at home,” says Mrs Jane Cherono of Boron farm in Sachang’wan. Mrs Cherono says she often visits the monument and prays.

The monument with its modern architectural finishing stands right on the mass grave with the names of the 78 victims buried in it written in white on a black surface at the entrance. Some local leaders have disregarded the construction of the monument by the Ministry of Special Programmes, saying that it was a waste of resources.

“What is the use of a memorial site when many Kenyans are starving?” poses Mr Michael Wangombe. According to Mr Wangombe, the Molo Town Council chairman, unlike the 1998 bomb blast victims who met their death in their work place, the Sachang’wan victims rushed to the scene of the tragedy knowing that they were endangering their lives.

Mr Wangombe argues that the Sh2 million used to build the monuments in addition to the Sh12.9 million compensation to 258 explosion survivors should have been used to resettle internally displaced persons in the district. In his opinion, despite the blast being treated as a national disaster because of its magnitude, the circumstances that led to loss of life were not of good faith but an act of criminality.

Idle like vultures

“If the government had followed the law, some of these people should either be languishing behind bars or have received other penalties for the crime they committed by rushing to the scene with a mentality to loot,” he says. As the Solid Base Contractors put final touches to the monument that is due for opening on January 31 (the day when the tragedy happened, last year) Mr Wangombe says that the heroic treatment is not necessary.

“This was just one incident where residents, mostly youths, idle like vultures along the highway waiting for scenes of accidents or to siphon fuel from trucks ferrying the commodity,” he adds. Hardly four months after the Sachang’wan tragedy, he says, one person was killed and another 12 people seriously burnt in Kericho as they siphoned petrol from a tanker that had rolled.

“How many accidents of the same kind happened after this? People have not learnt and I fear nobody ever will. They will still endanger their lives through siphoning fuel or engaging in highway robberies and the monument will not help at all,” he says. Molo police boss Litabalia Achesa accuses tanker drivers plying the highway to different parts of East Africa of operating cartels with the youths and selling them fuel, which is later sold through the black market at greatly reduced prices.

Almost a year later, Mr Litabalia says, the police are yet to unearth what caused the tanker to veer off the road and the eventual explosion. The ill-fated tanker was ferrying 50,000 litres of petrol to Southern Sudan from the pipeline depot in Nakuru. Both the driver, Mr Mohammed Ndumani and the loader, Mr Justus Mwangangi, were held briefly at Molo Police Station where they recorded statements before being released.

Driven by poverty

Molo district commissioner Julius Kavita defends the monument, saying it is a government initiative as a commemoration of all those who perished in the fire and were buried in the mass grave. Mr Kavita is optimistic that the monument will remain as a reminder to the residents and motorists that disasters like the explosion can bring Kenyans together.

The DC adds that it is equally a practical lesson to discourage those intending to rush to accident scenes to loot. Sachang’wan councillor Paul Tesot, who welcomes the building of the monument, exonerates those affected by the tanker tragedy, saying most of them were driven by poverty, curiosity or ambitions of making the best of the moment. He gave the example of nine IDPs from Good Hope Camp in Kibunja, whom, he says, went to siphon petrol to get money to buy fertiliser and food after they were neglected by the government.