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"id": 1549650,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
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"legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
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"content": "Hon. Temporary Speaker, on Thursday 1st February 2024, an LPG explosion occurred in the Mradi area of Embakasi, Nairobi County. The facility involved was an LPG plant used for storing and filling gas cylinders. This explosion claimed the lives of 11 Kenyans and left at least 280 other people injured. The explosion further resulted in a massive fire which spread to nearby buildings, causing extensive damage to residential and commercial properties. Following this incident, I had an occasion with the area Member of Parliament, the Hon. Babu Owino and the party leader of ODM, the Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga, to visit this particular area. Together with members of the committee, we resolved that we had to conduct an inquiry as to what led to this particular incident happening, with a view of making sure that it never happens again. Hon. Temporary Speaker, during the committee proceedings, we framed the deliberations in order to arrive or to determine the following issues as key issues for resolution. The first reason was why the LPG refilling facility was located so close to a human settlement, the ownership details of the company that was running the facility, compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements of having an LPG refill and storage facility, details of LPG refill and storage facilities and their locations in the county, sorted by counties and safeguards that the government has put in place to avoid a recurrence of the same. So, during these deliberations, we held six meetings as a committee. I want to thank members of this committee, led by the then Chairperson, for the dedication in order to bring some level of closure to the people of Mradi and the people of Nairobi in general. We held six meetings with key stakeholders, including the then Cabinet Secretary for Energy, the Director General (DG) of the National Environment Management Agency (NEMA), the DG for Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), the Director and Gas Explosives Expert at EPRA, then we had the Petroleum Institute of East Africa also appearing before the committee and the Energy Dealers Association. With your permission, Temporary Speaker, I will just run through some very quickly. First of all, one of the key observations that the committee made is that there is involvement of multiple legal regulatory bodies in the licensing process, which creates a complex web of responsibility, making it difficult to establish accountability where safety issues arise. So, from those deliberations, we realised that there are a number of licences that somebody needs to obtain before they operate such a facility. The problem we have is that these various agencies that are responsible for giving these licences do not speak to each other. So, somebody will go to the county government The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}