More than twenty human beings have died in the Nakumatt inferno, while the loss from Sanchang’wan tanker fire in Molo is long over 130. As the forgetful nation we are, we will soon return to normalcy having buried our dead and cursed the politicians for not preventing the two most recent disasters. The fire in Nakumatt Downtown was not just preventable, but the extent of human casualties would have been lessened if we were a working nation.
You don’t have to have lost a relative in either fires to feel angry and saddened by this wanton destruction of human life. But like the 1998 bomb blast, to Kikambala, the collapse of a building in Nyamakima and many fire incidents in between, we often come out to rehearse the same chorus of condemnation at the politicians, the city councils, hapless firefighters, and human selfishness among other agencies. Afterwards we recoil into our cocoons and await the next disaster, comfortable in the knowledge that we have exercised our patriotic duty of ‘cursing the devil.’It is obvious that these uncoordinated outbursts have not helped our country. We now know that the for the past seven years, Moi and Kibaki cabinets have been sitting on critical recommendations that would have established a coordinated response to disasters and availed resources for the same.
But looking at the Nakumatt fire, it is emerging that legislation alone will not put a stop to this madness. A few years ago, a factory fire in industrial area killed people because night shift employees were usually locked in to prevent theft! In Nakumatt, we now know that the management’s primary instinct after the explosion was to close the doors and the steel shutters to prevent looting, not knowing the depth and breadth of the disaster unfolding within. From Nairobi city Council, we are informed that safety inspectors were frequently turned away, while fire fighters at the scene have said that if the fire exits had not been sealed off from within to create room for more goods, they would have rescued more people. The irony was not lost to me that while the Internal Security Minister castigated those who perished in the tanker incident as typical of Kenyans’ greed and inclination to free things, he had no similar word for those who perished while paying for goods in Nakumatt. The difference is that in the latter case, it is the greed of the rich, not the poor that caused the deaths. It is the epitome of insanity and insensitivity to blame the recklessness of a desperate (wo)man.
Your bet is as good as mine on whether someone will pay for the lives lost, livelihoods shattered and futures distorted. The most we will get is a brief soap opera in the courts, and perhaps a brotherly jail term that will then be quashed after an overdrawn appeal. In the mean time, the management will be out on eternal bond, doing business as usual. Does anyone of us still remember Cholmondeley and the peasant he killed? Or Pattni and the tragi-comedy that was the Goldenberg hearings? Or the Kimunyas and the mortgaging of a nations heritage? This trend is bad, and this is why we must shift our focus from the politicians and take matters in our very hands. There are things we can fix with sheer thoughtfulness, determination, and commitment to our collective betterment as a people. To expect lasting action from the bunch of pseudo-leaders who occupy state house, parliament and Sheria house is foolish to say the least, especially since it is not an election year.
Perhaps we can begin by being the change we want, being active participants ion the change process. As consumers, let us organize, not agonize! Let the government catch up with us in policy issues. Despite the convenience, we can start a campaign to abstain from supermarkets that will continue stocking gas in their premises, those that are congested with absolutely poor ventilation (I often wondered how the cashiers sat still for an entire shift in Nakumatt Downtown without fainting, the place was packed to the door). Even as we organize, we must demand to see Nakumatt management in court enroute to serving life imprisonment for the deaths of many Kenyans because they not only failed to prevent the disaster, but their greed made it impossible for help to reach their dying clients at their hour of greatest need. No amount of monetary compensation can heal the wounded and return the dead, but it is a justified starting point. Punitive compensation and awards will also serve as deterrence for future and on-going offenders.
Yet I am profoundly aware that these wishes cannot be guaranteed within our pathologically dysfunctional legal system. Regardless, if Nakumatt is not held to account for negligence, murder and endangering the lives of Kenyans, then we must abstain from all its stores in Kenya. This campaign should start at the table of every household in respect to those we have lost. We must take the initiative to defend ourselves from unscrupulous and heartless businessmen and women whose primary goal is profit to the exclusion of any value of human life. Above all, those who die everyday from road accidents, robberies, professional negligence in hospitals, avoidable starvation, police bruatlity and sheer hopelessness (all offshoots of corruption, greed and individual indifference) demand of us, at the very-very personal level, a fundamental transformation in our hearts and minds.
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