•The President said there was no need for such people to continue holding government office and being paid with taxpayers money
•Ruto blamed the incident on corruption, lack of integrity and greed among government officials.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
President William Ruto has ordered the sacking of state officials accused of irregularly issuing licenses for the operation of a gas plant that resulted in an explosion on Friday morning.
Addressing the issue in Lugali on Saturday morning, Ruto attributed the incident to corruption, lack of integrity, and greed among government officials responsible for granting the license to the operator.
The Head of State directed that the Ministry of Energy should ensure the people implicated in the matter should vacate office with immediate effect and face charges for the offences committed.
He expressed concern that the people in government had issued the licenses for the business to be conducted in a residential area where Kenyans reside endangering their lives.
“I want to say for the avoidance of doubt, the government officials who issued licenses for gas installations in residential areas when it was very clear that it was the wrong thing to do, but because of incompetence and corruption they issued licenses,”
He continued: “Today we have injuries, we have Kenyans who have died, those fellows who are involved in this, the ministry must immediately take action against them and they must be dismissed and prosecuted for the crimes they have committed.”
The President said there was no need for such people to continue holding government office and being paid with taxpayers money.
On Friday evening, the government announced plans to crack down on gas storage and refilling depots in the country after one caught fire in Embakasi Friday morning.
Three people died and more than 280 others were injured following the incident at Mradi area after a gas filling and storage plant caught fire.
In a joint statement, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki and his Energy counterpart Davis Chirchir said the government will demolish all illegal sites through the Multi-Agency Rapid Results Initiative.
"The government will apply punitive administrative measures to all Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) operators found filling cylinders without the written authority of the brand owners," CS Kindiki said.
He said the government will ensure a fresh risk assessment is undertaken for all LPG plants in the country with the view of closing all non-compliant sites.
The Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations has accused the government of failing to enforce rules and regulations to protect the public from exposure to danger.