Victims of Siaya fuel tanker explosion to be buried Friday
Residents of Malanga village in Gem, Siaya County, at the scene of a fuel tanker explosion on July 18, 2021, following an accident on Kisumu-Busia highway.
What you need to know:
- The death toll rose to 22 after more people succumbed to their injuries at Siaya County Referral Hospital.
Twenty two victims of the fuel tanker explosion in Malanga, Siaya County, early this month will be buried on Friday.
The death toll rose to 22 after more people succumbed to their injuries at Siaya County Referral Hospital.
Ahead of the burials on Friday, three families whose DNA test results had been delayed have been asked to collect them at Yala sub-county and Siaya referral hospitals on the same day.
The families of the 13 people who died at the site of the explosion are expected at the Yala hospital morgue at 6am Friday to collect the bodies while the rest will be collected from the county referral hospital.
A joint funeral service will take place before the burials, with the government taking care of all funeral expenses.
More victims
Pastor Maurice Ogutu, one of the funeral coordinators, said the families have been informed of the plans.
“Families have been asked to be at the morgue early and afterwards go to the chief’s camp, where a mass will be held before each one is allowed to take the bodies for burial,” he said.
A final programme from the chief will be ready by Wednesday.
Pastor Ogutu said prayer visits to survivor’s homes revealed that more people who were injured in the explosion but had been hiding at home for fear of victimisation have now gone for treatment.
“Two more presented themselves at Yala Hospital after the pain from the injuries became unbearable,” he said, adding that some of the patients at the referral hospital were getting worse.
Long wait for families
Grief-stricken families have been waiting for weeks for their loved ones who died in the incident to be identified.
Only the seven people who died at Siaya County Referral Hospital while undergoing treatment have been identified.
An exercise to identify 13 unclaimed bodies began on July 21 after a multi-agency team from Nairobi and Kisumu arrived at Yala hospital to collect samples for further analysis in Kisumu.
Officers from the Government Chemist, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the National Disaster Management Unit listed the names of relatives whose samples were taken.
The tragedy has exposed the inadequacy of some county referral hospitals to deal with fire disaster complications.
It emerged that Siaya County Referral Hospital does not have a specialised burn unit, meaning it must transfer critically burnt patients to other facilities.
The county referral hospital has patients admitted, most with at least 70 percent degree burns, Yala Sub-County has seven with below 30 per cent burns and one is admitted at Inuka hospital.
Earlier, there were recommendations for patients to be transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County.
