Five workers crushed to death in rice warehouse

By Patrick Beja? and Willis Oketch

Five men were crushed to death by stacks of falling sacks of rice at a warehouse in Shimanzi, Mombasa, raising new fears about safety of unskilled workers in crowded areas.

Last evening, police, Kenya Red Cross Society and the Kenya Ports Authority’s fire fighters called off the search for survivors after pulling a man from the mound of sacks.

Some of the victims suffocated to death while others sustained internal injuries after getting stuck in the rubble for hours.

They shouted for help but could not be reached even after three hours, allegedly because police kept off volunteers.

But Coast Provincial Police Officer Aggrey Adoli denied the allegations, claiming police were beating back the growing crowd in order to protect them from a possible secondary accident.

“Police are not trying to prevent looting. They are trying to protect the crowd from falling sacks,” said Adoli, as police pulled a survivor from the heap.

Coast deputy Provincial Commissioner Robert Kitur confirmed that five people had been killed in the accident. He added that one person had been rescued and taken to hospital.

Authorities have not determined the cause of the incident but independent sources say the walls of the ill-fated warehouse have been gradually caving in for sometime and were on Monday pulled through by activity from adjacent warehouses.

All those killed were loaders and casual labourers employed by Kenjaro Coffee Godown to unload newly imported rice.

Police and eyewitnesses said the tragedy occurred at about 1pm after workers went in the warehouse to offload bags of rice into waiting trucks.

They were suddenly startled by unusual sounds as a result of the fast downward movement of bags.

Kenya Shipping Union Chairman Michale Oywer said godown employees work in grave danger such as what was witnessed on Monday.

“The rescued man was removed from the piles about three hours after the incident and sustained injuries on his legs. He was rushed to hospital by one of the waiting ambulances,” Kitur said at the scene.

“The reports we have indicate that five people were buried under the bags of rice after they collapsed on them. Several workers had been deployed to remove the bags and load them into a lorry. So far one man has been rescued and one body recovered,” Kitur said.

He said the bags were being removed in an operation to search for more bodies or rescue any surviving victims.

A loader, Mr Alex Miondo said he was concerned that the entire operation appeared to be centered at saving the rice cargo from looters instead of saving lives.

“Even the single survivor has been rescued many hours after the incident because they are carrying the rice sacks all the way into waiting trucks. Instead police should guard the cargo outside the compound as we try to save lives first,” Miondo said.

Kenya Shipping, Clearing, Forwarding and Warehousing Union Kilindini branch Chairman Mr Thomas Wafula also expressed dismay at the slow pace of rescue operations.

He said in case of such an accident priority should be given to saving lives.

Wafula decried the piling of bags several metres high saying it put workers’ lives at risk uncase the sacks collapsed.

“Our concern is the height of the stacked bags in the godown. This puts workers at great risk when they fall down,” he said.

“We have complained of low pay but the minister of Labour has not acted on our reports. We are courting death in the warehouses unless the situation is addressed urgently,” he said.