Kenya mourns as death toll soars

  1. Posted on Monday 2 February 2009 - 07:01
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    Story and Photo: Jack Shaka, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
    A week of mourning has been declared in the east Africa country of Kenya as fire consumes over 100 citizens in two separate incidents. The exact figures of the dead varies in different quarters - the BBC put the number at over 100, Reuters 131 while AfricaNews reporter quoted a Red Cross source as 90.
    Kenya police Photo: Jack Shaka
    At least 25 people were killed in a fire at a mega store – Nakumatt - in Nairobi, and more than 100 died when a petrol tanker exploded near the town of Molo off the Rift Valley province.

    The Kenya government declared that flags will fly at half mast and all official functions have been postponed to mark "a national disaster. President Mwai Kibaki, who is out of the country attending the African Heads of State Summit in Ethiopia, sent a message to console is grieving nation. The government has been lambasted for its failure to address public safety.

    Prime Minister Raila Odinga said the image of poor Kenyans dying as they scrabbled in the road for fuel under darkness on Saturday was an indictment of the state of the nation, Reuters reported.

    Meanwhile, surviving victims are undergoing medical treatment at various hospitals in the capital.

    On Saturday, at least 111 people died a few kilometres from Molo Town in Rift Valley Province of Kenya after an overturned road tanker caught fire and exploded. People who rushed to the scene to siphon spilling fuel were consumed to death as the flames flared.

    Related stories

    Kenya: 50 die in tanker explosion

    Kenya: Nairobi's mega store on fire

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