Residents of Konate in Nyamira County abstracted fire engines which had been deployed from Kisii County to Kebirigo market leading to escalation of a fire breakout, Nyamira Governor John Nyagarama has claimed.
Mr Nyagarama’s administration had come under scrutiny from a section of county residents who questioned its disaster preparedness.
However, on Sunday during function at Riomego, the county boss defended his government, alleging that two fire engines had been blocked by residents of Konate to make his government blamed for inabilities to handle emergency cases.
“My government is always disaster-prepared. The fact that we don’t have fire engines does not mean that we were unable to handle the fire breakout in Kebirigo. Officials from Kisii County have confirmed that two fire engines which we had requested were blocked at Konate leading to inability for us to contain the fire,” he said.
He urged police to investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to book arguing that the ‘primitive’ act led to loss of property worth millions of shillings.
“As much as we can be blamed as a county, the irresponsible residents who executed that primitive act should be arrested to be held accountable. The fire could have been contained in time because our neighbors responded immediately after being informed by my County Secretary,” He said.
He maintained that the county government was in the process of securing fire engines which will be stationed in all the five sub-counties to handle emergencies.
“We are in the process of procuring fire engines and once we acquire them, we will have at least one in every sub county to handle the