Detectives from the Nairobi County police headquarters are pursuing seven suspects in connection to the gas explosion tragedy at Mradi area in Embakasi.
The incident has left six people dead and more than 200 others hospitalized.
The suspects include; Derick Kimathi, the proprietor of the illegal gas filling plant; Steve Kioko, Kimathi’s partner.
Others include the driver of the truck that is suspected to have caused the explosion whom they are yet to confirm whether he escaped or was among the casualties.
And four National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA )officials were suspended for allegedly issuing a license illegally to Kimathi’s company.
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But even though police claim that the suspect has gone into hiding, Kimathi through his lawyer Wandugi Kirathe has denied claims, saying he has been cooperating with police officers investigating the matter.
“It is important to note that our client is not in hiding, he is available, he is within the public and has been in touch with sections of the police,” he said.
Further, Kimathi denies reports that the site where the incident occurred was an illegal gas plant stating that for years it was a garage.
However, what is not clear is why the garage specialised in repairing only trucks transporting Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
“Our client had not been operating a gas filling operation in that place, the premises in the last few years has been operating as a garage and till Thursday it was still operating as a garage, the motor vehicle that caused this incident was trespassing into his property without his knowledge and consent,” said the lawyer.
The lawyer has confirmed that Kimathi is in the business of transporting LPG products and that last year he made applications to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) to get a license to operate a gas filling plant in the area but the applications were rejected.
He argues that he shelved the idea after EPRA rejected his applications on grounds that the site was not viable due to its closeness to the public.
Following the incident, the government announced a raft of measures to ensure compliance in the sector.
They include undertaking a fresh risk assessment for all LPG plants with the view of closing all non-compliant sites, demolishing all illegal sites, an immediate rollout of a government LPG growth strategy and strengthening the LPG data verification framework, among other measures.
