Angry Nyeri residents dressed down Governor Mutahi Kahiga after the county fire department failed to respond to numerous pleas from the residents when an enormous fire left close to 40 families homeless on Thursday afternoon.
The county disaster management unit has six fire engines, but only one is functional and was stationed in Karatina, 30 kilometers away from where the fire broke.
Desperate locals rushed to the fire station, but could not get help as the engines just lay around.
Despite the fire station being less than three kilometers away, the county fire and rescue department failed to respond.
“I called the fire brigade and even went there personally and they told me that all their vehicles were in the garage and will be fixed on Monday," a distraught Ephantus Mwangi lamented.
“I ran there personally to seek for their help and they courageously confirmed me that they received pleading calls very early, but couldn’t do anything as the vehicles are broken down. It hurt me when they said that the vehicles would be repaired on Monday.
"I rushed to the governor and whoever I found there told me that the governor had asked us to find our own way of handling the fire. I wonder if truly, they are the people we voted in to represent us,” a hurtful Muthoni Gichuhi complained.
Residents were forced to use buckets to try and salvage their property worth millions in vain as the 2pm fire spread fast destroying the wooden structures at Kamkwa's Jericho estate.
Nyeri County Police Commander Adiel Nyange stated that the cause of the fire was not established while special programs CEC Esther Ndungu confirmed that the fire engines had broken down at the time of the incident.
"We have now fixed one of the engines and it responded to the fire that took place yesterday morning,” Ndungu revealed.
The county government of Nyeri recently bought two modern engines to enhance its fire-fighting capacity and disaster preparedness. The engines were acquired from Austria and were to arrive in Nyeri early this year.
It is not yet clear whether the newly acquired engines were among the ones that stalled as fire destroyed property.
During the purchase, Governor Kahiga asserted the county would set up a disaster management unit at an initial cost of Ksh10 million and that firemen had been hired and trained to operate the engines.
