Kenyan police announced Tuesday that they had apprehended the primary suspect in a deadly gas blast that caused a massive fireball in a densely populated neighborhood of Nairobi last week.
A vehicle loaded with gas canisters burst in Embakasi, southeast of Kenya’s capital, late Thursday, killing six people and injuring about 280.
Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations stated in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, that its agents had apprehended the “prime suspect” who rented the gas depot where the explosion happened.
“To ensure that justice has had its way, the DCI teams that are investigating the dreadful incident have so far arrested main suspect Derrick Kimathi alongside three NEMA officials who were found culpable,” according to the statement.
Officials from the National Environment Management Agency (NEMA) have been accused of issuing an incorrect licence for the LPG filling and storage plant in such a highly populated area.
“Five other suspects are still at large and are wanted by the DCI to answer for their crimes that have caused untold physical and emotional suffering to fellow Kenyans,” the DCI statement read, accompanied by images of the accused.
According to the report, these include the site manager, two other NEMA employees, a truck driver, and another driver.
President William Ruto stated at the weekend, without mentioning NEMA, that licenses for gas installations in residential areas were incorrectly provided “due to incompetence and corruption.”
Ruto stated that those involved should be fired and “prosecuted for the crimes they have committed”.
NEMA announced on Saturday that Maxxis Nairobi Energy had secured a permit to operate a gas plant at the site in February of last year.
It stated that it has suspended four of its employees.
The massive flame wreaked havoc in the residential and industrial areas, destroying automobiles, commercial buildings, and residential dwellings.
According to the 2019 census, Embakasi has a population of approximately one million and is located near Kenya’s international airport.
According to the Petroleum Institute of East Africa, the gas depot’s owner and several of its customers were already convicted and sentenced in May 2023.