The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has broken its silence after a night gas explosion killed three and injured more than 280 people in Embakasi, Nairobi.
The explosion occurred at around 11:30 pm Thursday in Mradi area, with the Government attributing the accident to a lorry loaded with gas exploding.
“One Lorry of an unknown registration number that was loaded with gas exploded, igniting a huge ball of fire that spread widely. A flying gas cylinder hit Oriental Godown, burning down the said godown which deals with garments & textiles,” Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said.
However, EPRA now says that it rejected applications for construction permits for a Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage and filling plant at the site of explosion thrice in 2023.
EPRA: Rejected applications
The authority says it received the applications on 19th March, 20th June and 31st July 2023, and rejected all of them as they did not meet the criteria for an LPG storage and filling plant in that area.
“The main reason for the rejection was failure of the designs to meet the safety distances stipulated in the Kenya Standard,” EPRA says in a statement seen by TV47 Digital.
EPRA further says that part of the reasons for the rejection of the said application was because of the high population density around the proposed site.
“…the applicant was requested to submit a Qualitative Risk Assessment (QRA) clearly indicating the radiation blast profiles in the unfortunate case of an explosion like the one that happened yesterday,” the statement continues.
EPRA has confirmed that the applicant never provided the requested QRA resulting in the rejection of the applications, and in turn, it send an email providing reasons for the rejection.
“As the regulator, we have formulated short and medium-term measures to ensure safety of all LPG plants in the country is guaranteed. This is through actions such as undertaking detailed technical audits of all licensed LPG plants in the country with the objective of ensuring high safety integrity status in terms of Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE).”
Consequently, EPRA says it always takes administrative actions to ensure that operating licenses for all plants rated below the high safety integrity status are revoked.
In addition, surveillance and enforcement actions, EPRA says, are taken including demolishing illegal plants operating across the country and curbing malpractice in the sector.
