A disaster is looming at Industrial Area, Nakuru County, where an illegal Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) filling plant is located in the middle of a residential area.
It has been revealed that the plant which is tightly fenced has been operating for more than one year according to the residents.
“This dangerous business has been going on for more than one year now and we fear for our lives because we live near there and there are factories and commercial buildings located within the same area,” said Mary Njoroge, a resident.
According to Njoroge, on Monday night, the owner of the tightly fenced and guarded establishment was doing his business as usual and the residents tipped the detectives who rushed to the scene.
During the 8pm Monday night incident, eight suspects including the owner of the business were arrested as they were operating without licenses and 956 gas cylinders from different brand nabbed.
“Immediately we received information, we rushed to the scene. We found that two lorries, 2 pickups, two probox, a Nissan and a Toyota saloon cars were packed with the gas cylinders. Some cylinders were full as they tried to fill up the remaining,” said Nakuru police boss Joshua Omukata.
County Deputy DCIO Joseph Bahati said that the gas cylinders were in various Kilograms.
“The cylinders were in 3kgs (1) 6kgs (813), 7Kgs (2) 13Kgs(137), 15 Kgs (1) and 40Kgs (2). There was a total of 956 gas cylinders,”said Bahati.
Omukata said that the police have launched investigations and the culprits will be arraigned in court.
“Fake cylinders put the lives of consumers in danger since they can burst and cause fire and other accidents,” said the police boss.
He said the consumers should go for branded LPG cylinders that are stocked in majority of supermarkets and retail outlets to avoid the fake gas cylinders.