SEVEN GSU officers and three fire fighters have been arrested for looting money and alcohol following Wednesday's at the 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. Equity and KCB ATMs which are also on the ground floor were not looted as they are located on the outer side of the building.
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.
Head of security at the airport Erick Kiraithe said there was nothing his men could do to stop individual tenants from accessing their offices to salvage what they could from the debris.
The Chief Fireman Brian Chunguli denied his officers had acted in an unprofessional manner. “It is the work of the police to secure scenes. Our work as firefighters is always to contain and put out the fire. That is our key mandate,” said Chunguli.
In his second visit to the airport since the inferno, President Uhuru Kenyatta allayed fears that the fire was an act of terrorism or sabotage and said preliminary investigations indicated that it was a mere fire incident that got out of control due to incompetence,negligence and poor disaster response.
Asking Kenyans to avoid speculation until the technical expected completed their investigations in a few weeks time' President Uhuru ordered the reorganization of all security agencies which will now be placed under one command.
He also ordered the complete overhaul of all disaster management organizations which will now operate under one co-ordinating agency.
Three years ago, Paul Kanyi Muthee published his thesis on Stakeholders assessment of Airport disaster preparedness and mitigation: a case study of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for his Masters degree in Sociology (Disaster Management) and made similar recommendations.
Muthee, who has trained flight attendants and pilots for Kenya Airways, Aircraft Leasing Services (ALS), Ghana Airways, Air Kenya, Delta Connection, Air Uganda, Fly 540, Rwandair, African Express, Jetlink Express, among others recommended the synchronization of a comprehensive and exhaustive training curriculum with the acquisition of modern disaster preparedness equipment to cater for all facets of disaster at the airport. He also recommended that "a well spelt-out coordination mechanism' be established 'to avoid the current situation where each agency responds according to its own assessment of the situation."
Yesterday, President Uhuru said while the cost of the damage to the terminal was yet to be determined, a full refurbishment of the three terminals at the airport would be done to ensure they reflected the face of Nairobi as the regional hub in aviation.
He said a temporary terminal with the capacity to handle 2.5 million passengers was under construction and will be ready in the “coming few weeks”.
The government is also working in fast tracking the completion of construction works at the new Terminal Four to help deal with the crisis. The terminal was expected to be ready by March next year but its completion date may be expedited.
Last evening, the British High Commission commended the government for the swift manner in which it was acting to bring the airport operations back to normal and offered to provide any assistance that may be required.
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