Five workers crushed to death in rice
warehouse
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Updated Monday, July 16 2012 at 22:43 GMT+3
By
Patrick Beja? and Willis Oketch
Five men were crushed to death by stacks of falling sacks of rice
at a warehouse in Shimanzi, Mombasa, raising new fears about safety of
unskilled workers in crowded areas.
Last evening, police, Kenya Red Cross Society and the Kenya
Ports Authority’s fire fighters called off the search for survivors after
pulling a man from the mound of sacks.
Some of the victims suffocated to death while
others sustained internal injuries after getting stuck in the rubble for hours.
They shouted for help but could not be reached
even after three hours, allegedly because police kept off volunteers.
But Coast Provincial Police Officer Aggrey Adoli
denied the allegations, claiming police were beating back the growing crowd in
order to protect them from a possible secondary accident.
“Police are not trying to prevent looting. They
are trying to protect the crowd from falling sacks,” said Adoli, as police
pulled a survivor from the heap.
Coast deputy Provincial Commissioner Robert
Kitur confirmed that five people had been killed in the accident. He added that
one person had been rescued and taken to hospital.
Authorities have not determined the cause of the
incident but independent sources say the walls of the ill-fated warehouse have
been gradually caving in for sometime and were on Monday pulled through by
activity from adjacent warehouses.
All those killed were loaders and casual
labourers employed by Kenjaro Coffee Godown to unload newly imported rice.
Police and eyewitnesses said the tragedy
occurred at about 1pm after workers went in the warehouse to offload bags of
rice into waiting trucks.
They were suddenly startled by unusual sounds as
a result of the fast downward movement of bags.
Kenya Shipping Union Chairman Michale Oywer said
godown employees work in grave danger such as what was witnessed on Monday.
“The rescued man was removed from the piles
about three hours after the incident and sustained injuries on his legs. He was
rushed to hospital by one of the waiting ambulances,” Kitur said at the scene.
“The reports we have indicate that five people
were buried under the bags of rice after they collapsed on them. Several
workers had been deployed to remove the bags and load them into a lorry. So far
one man has been rescued and one body recovered,” Kitur said.
He said the bags were being removed in an
operation to search for more bodies or rescue any surviving victims.
A loader, Mr Alex Miondo said he was concerned that the entire
operation appeared to be centered at saving the rice cargo from looters instead
of saving lives.
“Even the single survivor has been rescued many hours after the incident
because they are carrying the rice sacks all the way into waiting trucks.
Instead police should guard the cargo outside the compound as we try to save
lives first,” Miondo said.
Kenya Shipping, Clearing, Forwarding and Warehousing Union
Kilindini branch Chairman Mr Thomas Wafula also expressed dismay at the slow
pace of rescue operations.
He said in case of such an accident priority should be given to
saving lives.
Wafula decried the piling of bags several metres high saying it
put workers’ lives at risk uncase the sacks collapsed.
“Our concern is the height of the stacked bags in the godown. This
puts workers at great risk when they fall down,” he said.
“We have complained of low pay but the minister of Labour has not
acted on our reports. We are courting death in the warehouses unless the
situation is addressed urgently,” he said.
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