It was a Wednesday and we were in Narok on my Kenyan
Safari when I saw on Facebook that the international airport of Nairobi (JKIA)
was on fire and it was more the pictures that made me gasp more than the status
updates that were coming through thick and fast. It was posted by a pilot friend that was
supposed to be flying that morning and it looked like the whole terminal was up
in flames and this was one of those pictures that speaks a million words. I spread the word through the truck and of
course people were worried that had flights booked in 4 days’ time, as I would
be too, as to whether the airport would be open for them to fly home and back to
jobs that were expecting them back. It
would make a good story as to why you couldn’t get back to work though… To be honest I was more worried about my own
flights and they weren’t for another 4 weeks.
But as a few people pointed out they could not keep East Africa’s
busiest airport closed for too long and I am happy to report that all my fellow
travellers got out of the country on time, not without a little hassle, but
they are now all safe and sound back home.
As the weeks progress more and more conspiracy theories
come to light and it is interesting to hear people’s thoughts on what they
think happened. The very first reports
that came out was to do with the US Embassy.
August 7th was the 15th anniversary of the 1998 terrorist twin bombings
of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The USA had sent FBI agents to assist
the Kenyan government in its investigations. But even more bizarre is the
allegation that CCTV cameras in the building were out of order during the fire. As the days past I am happy to report that
they have finally ruled out terrorism and that it was not a bomb that started
the fire and it was just a terrible coincidence of the anniversary, but let’s
go through the week that was before the fire.
The week leading up to the fire a few ‘incidents’
happened, which after the fire, has just fuelled more speculation. The first one was the row for the control of
space at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). The Kenya Airports Authority management
carried out a massive eviction drive of tenants occupying the controversial
Diplomatic Duty Free Company Limited Shops associated with businessman Kamlesh
Pattni at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The duty free shops belonging to the
controversial tycoon were forcefully taken over by the Kenya Airports Authority
(KAA) and goods removed, and not just removed, removed-they were thrown out
into the street removed like it was garbage and we are talking brand new
electronic etc……. It follows Wednesday
night’s expiry of a lease agreement between Pattni’s Duty Free shops and the
Kenya Airports Authority and property worth millions of shillings was
destroyed. The 14 shops were seized by
KAA following an overnight eviction of tenants occupying the premises. During
the Wednesday night raid by hired youth, business people occupying the shops
were forced out amid heavy looting of stock amounting to millions of shillings. One of the shop operators accused KAA
officials of colluding with a hired group of about 200 youth to conceal wares
stolen from the shops. Yesterday morning, several youth were caught in
possession of smartphones and gold-coated watches trying to sneak them out. A convoy of lorries loaded with the little that
was salvaged blocked KAA staff and visitors exit and entrance points,
temporarily paralysing operations at the busy airport. One of the staff members
stated that “this is an international airport. I mean things were being thrown
out unceremoniously without notice. Looting was done as police watched”. Over 600 people lost their livelihoods when
the duty free shops were demolished following a court order disallowing Pattni
to renew his lease. Since 1991, Pattni’s World Duty Free Company has held
exclusive rights to shops in all airports built by KAA. An online blog claimed
that during an NTV interview last Sunday, Pattni “warned Uhuru/Ruto that they
had abused their powers by oppressing innocent people who were just earning a
decent living from the duty free shops, and that God will remove them from
power very soon.”
The second thing that happened that week was a fuel
shortage to JKIA. Hundreds of passengers
were forced to cancel their flights at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
after a hitch with fuel supply to planes. It emerged later that the pipeline supplying
fuel to the airport malfunctioned with Kenya
Pipeline Company making frantic efforts to restore the normal
supply. Several aircrafts got grounded
and passengers driven to various City Hotels at the expense of the Airlines
they had booked. According JKIA officials,
an airlock interfered with Jet-A1 fuel flow that led to shortage thus no planes
could take off from 3pm. The airport was
shut down in the evening and all planes flying to Kenya had been redirected to
Entebbe and Kigali as the airport official made frantic efforts to resolve the
crisis. Among the passengers were the
Kenya bound Athletics team headed for the World Athletics Championships in Moscow from
the August 10.
And then lastly the devastating fire a week later. The huge fire that gutted the
international arrivals and immigration area of the Jomo Kenyatta International
Airport (JKIA) on August 7, 2013 exposed a big glitch in the fire and rescue of
the busiest airport in East Africa. The
fire started at one of the Immigration booths, at around 4.30am, and spread
through the baggage area, and the enclosed bridges connecting Units One and
Two. Five flights were diverted to other
airports and two others were stopped from flying to JKIA before leaving their
destinations. Nine flights had landed
before the airport was closed. The
airport serves six million passengers every year, translating to about 16,000
travellers passing through it daily. It took six hours for fire-fighters drawn from
the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), the military and other private companies to
put it out. It was a shame to see photos of soldiers carrying buckets of water
to douse the raging fire. In addition, it took more than half an hour for
the first fire engine to begin working, yet international standards require
three minutes of response at airports. Observers
saw fire-fighters struggling with hoses they could not operate and to worsen
the situation, water hydrants at the airport were out of function. The
inefficiency exhibited in the firefighting process shocked many Kenyans who
said: “Sijivunii kuwa Mkenya” (I am not proud to be a Kenyan). Hundreds of stranded
passengers watched as their pieces of luggage burnt to ashes during the
emergency evacuation. Thankfully nobody was injured and that it was not about a
plane that had caught fire. A question
was asked how 350 youths were allowed into the duty free area of the airport as
they had been ferried to demolish shops owned by Paul Kamlesh Pattni at
midnight last week. Who had authorized them as the airport is Government
property with high security? It is
speculated that the raiders might have tampered with electric cables that
caused a short circuit and eventually the devastating fire. The
airport has a fire station right next to the terminals and two substations
within the same airport. How then does it take one hour for the fire station to
respond to a distress call within a nose’s reach? What is the point of having a fire station at
the airport, if it is not manned 24/7? Even one hundred unmanned fire engines –
even if Kenya could afford them cannot make any difference!
The inferno that consumed the Jomo Kenyatta International
Airport’s international arrivals unit nearly a week ago provided a gold mine
for rumour mongers and conspiracy theorists, and mostly with that peculiar
Kenyan political slant. Facebook,
Twitter and analogue conversations at the local pub, church, park bench, and everywhere
else those with spare time gather, provided a bewildering array of takes on what
or who was behind the blaze. Some of
those theories about what caused the fire at JKIA with Kenyans responding to
issues at hand with conspiracy theories that can be shocking yet near to the
truth or somehow contains the hidden truth.
1. Raila Odinga hired some people to revenge, remember
the V.I.P lounge saga??
2. Pattni hired some goons to revenge; remember his duty
free stalls worth Millions were damaged by the same Parastatal.
3. Someone did it intentionally in order to be awarded
the tender to repair or reconstruct it.
4. The inferno is related to I.C.C, some people are out
to delay the cases by causing the crisis we are witnessing.
5. Someone has a plan to destroy Raila's business because the company that
supplies Jet a fuel at the airport is linked to him. They want to accuse the
company of carelessness in order to revoke the tender!!
6. They were exploring the possibility of arsonists
seeking to destroy immigration records or other sensitive security data at
Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
7. Illegal gold trade involving billions of shillings
between business men in Kenya, United Arab Emirates, Italy, and South Africa
has been linked to last week’s fire.
8. Police are focussing their investigations on four
passengers who were awaiting deportation when the fire broke out but cannot be
traced.
9. The staff of Kenya Airways are also to be interrogated
after investigators established that there was another fire at their kitchen,
which is a few metres from the immigration offices. The footage retrieved from Kenya Airways
headquarters showed three women in KQ uniform in the kitchen cooking food just
before the fire broke out at the same kitchen.
One of the most interesting
stories that came out during the fire was the looting and you can see how the
city has been labelled Nairobbery. For
a country known for its lawlessness, the security personnel who arrived to
assist with the fire had a field day looting money from banks and ATMs located
inside the arrivals section at the JKIA. It is reported that first responders
who arrived at massive airport fire in Kenya looted electronics, a bank and an
ATM. Officials investigating the fire at
Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport told the press that valuables
were stolen by emergency services including police, fire-fighters and the army.
Anonymous sources have alleged that first responders stole electronics and
money from an ATM. It is also believed that police guarding the site overnight
attempted to a take a safe from a bank in the burned-out arrivals hall, which
also houses several foreign currency exchange shops. All public servants in Kenya, including
police, fire-fighters and soldiers, are poorly paid and frequently accused of
corruption. Police officers who guard the entrance to Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport are well known in Nairobi for demanding bribes from taxi
drivers and other vehicles with Kenyan drivers.
Seven GSU officers and three fire fighters have been arrested for
looting money and alcohol following the fire at JKIA. The seven were found with
notes that were partially scorched and have been detained at the GSU training
school for processing before they are charged in court next week. The seven were among the first officers on
the scene and instead of containing the fire or securing the scene; they
started looting cash from the ATMS. Firemen
who arrived at the scene were also reported to have engaged in the looting of
cash from the forex bureaux situated in the terminal as well as mobile phones,
cameras and other items from the shops. The looters targeted the National Bank,
ECO Bank and Pesa Point ATMs. The seven
were arrested after they started bragging how it had been difficult to break
into the ATMs. Unknown to them, some of the people they were talking to were
plainclothes CID, military and national intelligence officers and even Kenya
Airports Authority personal who were able to identify them.
Oh Kenya, oh Nairobi, how you still love to shock the
world. In some things the country still
lives in the 70’s and in other things they are great at. Two days after the fire the flights out of
JKIA were running at 90% capacity and there were tents and chairs set up for
departing passengers, what took them too long to respond to the fire has taken
them a short amount of time to try and get things back to normal, well what can
be considered normal under the circumstances.
Talking to people that have departed and people who have returned through
the now damaged international airport, there has been a mixed response on their
experiences, but at the end of the day as long as the flights land and take
off, we are just going to have to suck up the inconvenience as they work to
rebuild the airport under a working and breathing airport.
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