A man fell into a metal boiler at a factory in Thika. Imagine the metal boiling temperatures. He was boiled to death instantly. In fact all his bones and flesh melted under the high temperatures and were mixed up with the metal.
It happened so fast. The kind of tragedy the Merus say ” he didn’t even say Wûi”
His family has no remains to bury.
Media reports indicate only a tooth was collected from the scene.
What shocks me to the core is the indifference from all quarters on this rather sad matter that should have generated such outrage from the general population and the workers lobby groups and unions to force factories and employers to scale up the workers’ safety standards at the workplaces.
No one has issued any statement.
Read other similar incidents
- Photos: Tragedy As Brookside Dairy Worker Falls Into Milk Tank
- More Revelations Of Mistreatment And Exploitation Of Workers At Daima Milk Factory
The ministry of labour hasn’t said Anything.
The cantankerous and sometimes over garrulous COTU Boss Francis Atwoli, who masquerades as the workers’ defender has not issued any statement. We just left the family to agonize whether to conduct a burial for the tooth or not.
This incident isn’t isolated.
Some years back Kenyans woke up to sad news about several workers who had been burnt to death when a factory they were working in caught fire at industrial area in Nairobi. It later emerged that the owner of the facility would always lock up workers inside the factory at night to avoid theft and the workers couldn’t get a way out.
They died very painful deaths.
Like in the case of the Thika boiler tragedy the industrial area facility was owned by a Kenyan of Asian extraction. It appears that most of these plants are open death traps to the workers.
The most outrageous thing about this country is that nothing is outrageous enough to push us into action.
But I am at least complaining. Kinya ngichia bûngî
By the way what happened to the families of the scores of people killed when the SOLAI farm dam burst some years ago?
Did they ever get justice?
Cnyakundi.com says, these are things to ponder; what have we become as a country?
