Death toll rises to six in Kenyan gas blast

Of the 280 wounded in Thursday night's blast, 53 are still receiving care intwo of the Kenyan capital's hospitals.
A truck laden with gas canisters exploded just before midnight Thursday inEmbakasi, a densely populated Nairobi district, unleashing a trail ofdestruction and sending people running for their lives.
"We regret to report that three more individuals have succumbed to theirinjuries, raising the deaths toll from the Embakasi fire incident to six,"spokesman Isaac Maigua Mwaura said in a statement.
So far, the only person arrested was a security guard at the site.
"The search is still ongoing for the owner of that business," a police sourcetold AFP
But a lawyer for the suspect said he wasn't hiding and bore noresponsibility.
"My client was not operating a gas-filling plant," the lawyer said during apress conference Saturday. "He was operating a garage and the vehicle thatcaused the accident was trespassing the premise."
- 'Incompetence and corruption' -
Embakasi is a residential and industrial area with a population of about onemillion according to the 2019 census which lies 10 kilometres (six miles)from Kenya's main international airport.
The Petroleum Institute of East Africa said initially on Friday that theexplosion occurred at an "illegal LPG refilling and storage site" whose ownerand some customers had been convicted and sentenced in May 2023.
But Kenya's National Environment Authority (NEMA) on Saturday said MaxxisNairobi Energy had obtained permission on February 2 last year to operate thesite. Four NEMA employees have been suspended.
President William Ruto, without mentioning NEMA, said that "governmentofficials issued licences for gas installations in residential areas when itwas very clear that it was the wrong thing to do, but because of incompetenceand corruption they issued licences."
Ruto said they should be sacked and "prosecuted for the crimes they havecommitted".
A joint statement by the interior and energy ministers said that according topreliminary findings, "the refilling of LPG cylinders was done using directmanifold connections to LPG tanker increasing the risk of leakage andexplosion".
"Twice in March 2020 and January 2021, the plant that was illegallyconstructed at the said location was demolished... the operators charged incourt," it added.