By: Okong’o Oduya
Property worth millions of money went down to ashes after the fire broke out in Nambale market Busia County early today.
According to the area OCPD Henry Ibutu traders were awakened by flames of fire around four in the morning from what is believed to be caused by electrical failure. Talking to press in his office Mr. Ibutu noted that the fire started in one shop before spreading to other three shops including a hardware shop.
He noted that nothing was rescued from the businesses since it was still very early and nobody was around to salvage anything. “As you can see nothing has been rescued from the four shops. The fire broke out when the owners were away .” He confirmed.
As they count loses the business people blamed the county government of Busia for slow response to their cry. They said that the fire engine that came to extinguish the fire from had to come from Tororo in Uganda.
“Why should the fire engine come all the way from Tororo in Uganda, yet we have county government in place. Does that mean that every time we have fire outbreaks in the county we must get help from Uganda?” Larmented Timothy Ouma an angry business man.
The business men blamed the governance of the county for failure to obtain big and reliable fire engines for the county in case of fire outbreaks. “As residents of the county we have always urged the county government to purchase big fire engines but our efforts have been fruitless. They give us stories we don’t understand. How long are we going to suffer like this? We need immediate action from the county government regarding fire tragedy in this Busia county.” Mr. Ouma complained.
“We are like citizens of Uganda, because if Ugandan fire engine can come all the way from Tororo Uganda and we are supposed to have ours here, why should we be Kenyans.”They added.
At the same time they asked Kenya power to compensate them for the loss adding that of late there has been frequent power interruptions which they associate it with the fire incident.
