Four Feared Dead, Six Injured as Nakumatt Downtown Supermarket Burns.

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Firefighters get down to work at the Nakumatt Downtown Supermarket on Wednesday

More than four people were feared dead, while six others were injured when a supermarket in Nairobi’s city centre caught fire.

The early afternoon fire broke out at Nakumatt Downtown on Kimathi Street, causing customers to rush out through the nearest entrance. There were fears that some workers and customers may have been trapped in the building. The early inferno, which workers claimed was triggered by an electric fault, could not at first be contained by the combined efforts from the City Council, Kenya Army, Kenya Airports Authority and private company G4S firefighters.

The inferno engulfed the entire building. Explosions from gas cylinders rent the air from 2.45pm and kept exploding, re-igniting blazes that had been quelled.

Wailing sirens punctuated the city’s peace and calm into the early evening as a police chopper kept aerial surveillance to ensure the fire did not spread to other buildings.

The fire had not been contained by the time we went to press.

Internal Security minister George Saitoti, who arrived at the scene immediately, said fire engines ran out of water and reinforcements had to be called.

Nairobi Metropolitan Development Minister Mutula Kilonzo and Police Commissioner Hussein Ali also went to the scene.

Outside the burning building, a man who said he works for the supermarket claimed some people had been trapped inside.
"I have left a colleague (name withheld)," he said hysterically. "A worker has fainted up there after inhaling the smoke. Please go and get him."


Missing Husband

But before they could explain where the said victims were, an explosion was heard inside, forcing the rescuers and firefighters to abandon their work.

At around 8.30pm, a woman was crying at the scene, saying her husband, with whom she had gone into the supermarket, was still missing.


She said he was in a different aisle and when the fire broke out, she dashed out. Efforts to reach her husband on his mobile phone were fruitless as it was off.

A policeman clears the crowd from the scene. [PHOTO: COLLINS KWEYU/STANDARD]

The supermarket’s Operations Director Thiagarajan Ramamurthy sent a statement to newsrooms saying all the staff and customers who were in the shop had been evacuated.

Later, the supermarket management said four workers were missing after a headcount at Jeevanjee Gardens where they met after the incident.

Spokesman Antony Ng’ang’a said there were 103 workers who were supposed to be on duty, but a headcount found only 99. "We are still trying to locate the whereabouts of the four," he told The Standard on the phone.

Treated For Shock

Kenya National Hospital Clinical Services deputy director Charles Kabetu confirmed that one Nakumatt employee and six by-standers had been taken there where they was being treated for shock, smoke inhalation and fractures.
There were no independent confirmations whether any customers were trapped inside although one witness said she had seen a woman with a child near where there was an initial explosion that caused the fire.

Police Commissioner Ali said they could not determine the number of the casualties until a headcount was concluded.

Prof Saitoti, too, said it was too early to know if there were any casualties. Witnesses said the inferno started from the supermarket when a mild explosion was heard.

"There had been a blackout and when power resumed, we heard an explosion from the staircase. Then there was smoke," said a worker.

But Ali said he had not yet established what caused the fire and asked for time to investigate.
However, some officers said a violation of by-laws on public safety and unpreparedness by the Nairobi Fire Brigade may be to blame.

Nairobi City Council Emergency Medical Technician Charles Choi said his team could not access the premises as a wall had sealed the fire exit.

The chairman of the Architectural Association of Kenya and Building Inspection Committee, under the Ministry of Works, Mr Wachira Njuguna, said he did not see any fire door when he visited the supermarket.
Njuguna further said it was against city by-laws to store gas cylinders in an enclosed space. But City Council Director of Planning Peter Kibinda said there were exemptions to the rule if one had a fire certificate of compliance and fire extinguishers.

Nakumatt could not be reached for comment on the wall by the time we went to Press.
City Council Acting Chief Fire Officer Brian Chunguli blamed the public for blocking his team. "We got the running call informing us of the fire at 3.05pm and in five minutes, we were at the scene," he said.
"The supermarket stores goods like gas cylinders, mattresses and materials of plastic nature that naturally fuel the fire," he added.
By Standard Team







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Zeru Zeru-Albinos Are Being "Finished" In Tanzania.

Crackdown on witchdoctors after albinos killed to harvest body parts.

                                          Albino In A Traditional Ritual, Mwanza Tanzania.

ALAMY

Albinos are being killed to make 'medicines'

Known as the "Zeru Zeru", or ghosts, Tanzania's albinos have put up with the name-calling and the stigmatisation of being "black in a white skin" for years. The unluckier ones have even been kicked out of their home by relatives who see their condition as a curse on the whole family. Now albinos in the east African nation face an altogether more deadly threat. They have become the favoured prey of traditional healers, who kill them to harvest their body parts for get-rich-quick concoctions.

In the most gruesome of a spate of albino murders in the north-west region around Lake Victoria, one corpse was exhumed with all its limbs cut off. Others have been found minus tongues, genitals or breasts.

"In the past, albinos have been killed after being accused of witchcraft but this is a new phenomenon. This time they are being targeted by the witchdoctors themselves," said Simeon Mesaki, a sociologist at the University of Dar es Salaam.

The problem has reached such proportions that Tanzania's President, Jakaya Kikwete, used his monthly television address to announce a crackdown on the traditional healers as well as plans to register albinos to improve their safety. "These killings are shameful and distressing to our society," said Mr Kikwete in his Wednesday night speech to the nation. "I am told that people kill albinos and chop their body parts, including fingers, believing they can get rich."

Many of the people using the potions made from sacrificed albinos are thought to be miners and fishermen, hoping for extra lucrative mineral finds or bumper fish catches.

According to the Tanzanian government, 19 albino people have been killed in the past year, with another two missing presumed dead. However, disability campaigners say the real number of victims could be as high as 50, given that many deaths do not get reported in a country where albinism is still seen as something to hide or where family members may even be complicit in the killings.

"Parents exchange their albino children for money so there's a poverty connection," explained Theodore Mwalongo, the head of the Tanzanian arm of Action on Disability and Development.

The Tanzania Albino Society, which in the past has accused the government of turning a blind eye to the killings, welcomed the President's words, but stressed that they must be backed up with action.

"The key will be whether the message gets down to local authorities so that there will real changes on the ground," said Samuel Mluge, its chairman. "We need to get rid of the corruption, and make sure that those behind the witchcraft are identified and brought to justice, and cannot buy themselves immunity."

Out of a population of 39 million, there are about 270,000 people in Tanzania who suffer from albinism – which stops them producing pigment in their skin, hair and eyes. This means that instead of having dark skin and black hair, they are blond with pinkish complexions.

Less than a century ago, most albinos born in Tanzania would have been killed at birth – viewed as proof of a woman's adultery with a European man. Because the gene for albinism is recessive, parents can both carry it and pass it on to their child, even if they look "normal". Yet even today, albinos are often called "mzungu" – the name given to the colonial white man – and many people do not understand that it is a genetic condition, not a curse.

Organisations such as the Tanzania Albino Society and Action on Disability and Development are trying to educate the population, helping to train healthcare workers and staging workshops for teachers and parents to encourage them to make sure albino children wear long-sleeved clothing and hats to protect them from the sun.

Additional Reports By Claire Soares.

HighWay Of Death.

Thursday, January 8, 1998 Published at 12:42 GMT

Despatches

Photo Courtesy Of Xinhua  News
Nairobi

Fifty-four people have been killed in Kenya when a bus skidded off a road and plunged into a river. The accident happened in the region of Meru, in the centre of the country. According to official radio, the road conditions had been made treacherous in the area because of heavy rain. The bus was reportedly owned by the local subsidiary of the British company Stagecoach. From Nairobi, our East Africa correspondent, Cathy Jenkins, reports:

The bus was on route from the central town of Meru to Nairobi when it apparently skidded on a steep section of the road and plunged into the river Nithi. Initial reports put the death toll at 30 but this has risen to 54, with many of the victims trapped inside the bus.

Official radio had said that road conditions in the area were treacherous because of recent bad weather. The El Nino effect in Kenya has caused torrential rains to continue well past the wet season.

But road conditions in Kenya are notoriously bad. Years of neglect have left roads in many areas pot-holed and in some places all but washed away.

And the accident rate due to bad driving is high. Buses are often badly maintained and loaded well over the limit with passengers and goods.
Source Cathy Jenkins

Ghosts Of Kobura

The Ghosts Of Kore-Kobura

Across the country in Nyando District, stories of ghosts and haunted places abound, especially in Kore and Kobura.

Kobura location borders the partly stalled Ahero Rice Irrigation Scheme on the Kisumu-Nairobi highway. A four-kilometre stretch on the Ahero-Lela road is widely believed to be haunted by ghosts. On this stretch, many grisly road accidents have been witnessed between Korowe trading centre and Lela Secondary School.

A resident of the area, Mark Ojwang’ Nyabange, says the accident jinx was caused by the deaths of an old woman and a child who were run over by a vehicle many years ago. The residents believe the large number of accidents are caused by the dead woman’s ghost, which keeps coming back to confuse motorists.

Villagers who go to assist accident victims claim to have been told by the drivers that they had seen a ghostly old lady cross the highway driving a herd of cattle just before the accident. Elsewhere, about two kilometres from the Nairobi highway towards Kore village, a ghost is said to haunt a bridge. It is claimed that many residents of the area, including a young man known as Joseph Omondi, have fallen victim to the ghost at the bridge.

Omondi recalls one night sometime back when he set out at night from his home near K’otieno Odongo village to visit his relatives in Kore. An architecture student at a Nairobi-based college, Omondi says when he approached the bridge he met an old woman clad in a buibui who requested for assistance.

"She pleaded for help to cross the bridge and I obliged, but by the time I crossed the bridge she had vanished," he said.

Villagers say the ghost often greets people in Dholuo: "Amosi swaya! Amosi swaya! (Warm greetings! Warm greetings!)." Additional sources Here

Koma Rock-The Immovable Rock.

Solid Rock-Kit Mikayi

Imposing hill

Travelling east from the Nairobi on the Nairobi-Kangundo highway, the expansive Ukambani plains roll out before the eyes.

As one approaches Kangundo town, a rocky outcrop comes into view. This is the famous Koma Rock, considered a shrine by many. The hill has been considered a sacred place since time immemorial.

Kamba elders used to journey to the rock to offer sacrifices to their gods at a designated shrine known locally as Ithembo. Ithembo in Kamba means a holy place. There, they would also pray for rain and for protection from plagues.

According to Paul Malinda, 80, the old folk believed that a strange and powerful force resided there. A fig tree still stands on the spot where the sacrifices were offered. Mzee Malinda says that stories were told of how visions of old men would appear at the shrine in the evenings and then disappear after a while.

He says that in 1970, road engineers constructing the Kangundo-Nairobi highway wanted to move the shrine so that the road could pass through the hill. This sparked a furious protest from Kamba elders. They agreed to have the shrine moved to another part of the hill, however, after a bag of sugar and two goats were offered to them as sacrifices.

"Despite the sacrifices, the blasting of rocks was very difficult — with machinery constantly breaking down," says Malinda. He claims the engineers abandoned the route after realising that there was an unknown power preventing the rock from being blasted. Today, the abandoned murram road is still visible from the top of the hill as it meanders through the Koma rock plains towards the city. Mzee Mwithi Musau, who is believed to have been born in 1900, says he was among those who used to offer sacrifices at the shrine, accompanying famous Kamba rainmakers and prophets.

Musau believes that it was a supernatural power that stopped the blasting of rocks.

Today, the shrine has been taken over by the Catholic Church, which has turned it into a site for pilgrimages. These days, it is often the scene of processions, singing of hymns, recital of prayers and fasting. Fr Thomas Vaddesary, who is in charge of the shrine, says the church chose it as a place where faithful could spend time in prayer.

"Koma rock is a place where traditional believers used to offer sacrifices in the past but now it has been turned into the shrine of our Lady," says Fr Thomas.

At the top of the shrine is an imposing 70-foot sculpture of Jesus Christ in the arms of his mother Mary after the body was lowered from the cross. Given its background and current religious activities, the Koma rock hill shrine is still a place of mystery for many.
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MENE'NKAI-The Place Of The Gods.

Tourist attraction

At the Menengai Crater in Nakuru, curious tourists are drawn to a controversial cave by stories of strange happenings that have convinced many that it is a haunted place.

A number of strange things are said to happen in the crater, such as people disappearing without trace.Others have lost directions for hours, or even days, only to be found by their relatives wandering around in a trance. Those who live nearby call a hill near the crater "kirima kia ngoma (Satan’s hill)". People claim to have seen the ‘devil’ riding a motorcycle there.

Last year, James Gichumuni (now deceased) allegedly spent two days in the crater. The old man, who had gone to the crater to graze his animals, failed to find his way out despite being well versed with the area. In another incident, a boy was found staring at a bird after going missing for seven days.

When asked where he was and what he was doing, he remarked, "I have been watching a beautiful vision for a few minutes."

Back in 1987, a schoolgirl disappeared without trace in the crater. Efforts by police to search for her using helicopters bore no results. The latest mystery about the crater is a ‘flying umbrella’ that appears whenever it rains. But no one has ever bothered to find out where the umbrella goes after the rains.

Although a good number of Christians go to the crater to fast and pray, it also attracts a fair number of suicides. Two Catholic priests are among dozens of people who have leapt to their deaths into the 845-metre crater. The latest incident was in November, last year, when a priest plunged his vehicle into the crater.

The local people believe that the crater is haunted by evil spirits that capture human beings and animals and hide them in the netherworld. It is believed that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, demons or ghosts used to farm on a fertile piece of land on the floor of the crater.

An elderly resident, Esther Wanjiru, says the ‘demons’ used to plough the land with tractors, plant wheat and harvest all within an hour. "You sat there watching and before you knew it, all these activities had taken place and the land would go back to its former state, a grassland with no activities or life," she claims.

Despite the eerie stories about the crater, pilgrims from as far as Kisumu, Kakamega and even Mombasa come to pray and fast at the site for days. Some even stay in the cave at the south of the crater for months. They say that they feel very close to God when praying in the crater.

The cave, large enough to house hundreds of people, commands a superb view of the crater.

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Kituluni AntiGravity Hill

Weird goings on at Kituluni hill Ken

Ask about Kituluni hill in Machakos District and people are likely to take you aside and talk in hushed tones about strange goings-on, witchcraft and sightings of ghosts dressed in white.

You will be told about happenings that stand Isaac Newton’s Law of Gravity on its head, such as water flowing uphill.

Some 300 kilometres away from this spot, in Nakuru, equally unlikely stories are told about a mystery cave in the Menengai Crater.

Few places in Kenya, indeed in the world, are without their own stranger-than-fiction stories that defy logical explanation. Outsiders might dismiss them out of hand, but local people hold on to them with a firm conviction.

Kituluni, 12 kilometres east of Machakos town, has long been the subject of speculation, and visitors have travelled for miles to witness the strange goings-on at the extraordinary hill.

It is perhaps the only place in the world where a car that is switched off can roll uphill, unaided.

On the way to Kituluni, one passes through Mutituni and Kivutini. A tarmac road leads toward the strange spot. It is a dangerous drive with tortuous twists and turns. Halfway round the hill, regardless of the speed at which the car might be moving, it is always jerked forward and suddenly moves faster without any discernible change on the speedometer.

Kituluni hill covers an area of about a square kilometre, and if you want to prove that the hill is indeed as strange as it is said to be, you can carry out a few experiments.If you switch off the car and park it at the side of the road with nobody inside, it immediately begins to move up the hill at a speed of approximately 5kph.

It has been known to do this for a distance of up to a kilometre, and just to prove that this is no fluke, it has been done over and over again with the same results. Although the Kituluni spot lies on a very steep part of the hill, experiments carried out with water produce the same results. Water can be seen flowing up the hill, instead of down.

For about 20 metres, the water flows in this manner until it changes course and flows to the side, but even then it never at any one point flows downhill. The same pattern is repeated when an empty bottle is placed on the spot and even though it only rolls for a few metres, it moves all the same.

The villagers claim to have an explanation for this strange phenomenon.

It is said that many years ago the local people used to make sacrifices to their ancestors on the hill. In those days the area was known collectively as Kivutini. The sacrifices were meant to appease the ancestors and seek favours from them, such as bringing rain or casting out evil spirits.

There was an altar where special rituals were performed, and was thus regarded as a holy place. Things changed when the road passing through the area from Machakos town towards Kaloleni was constructed and people were forced to conduct their ceremonies further down the hill.

Although the road has been around for quite a few years, no one seems to remember when the strange happenings currently being witnessed started. Villagers say they have even seen strange people dressed in white who vanish as mysteriously as they appear.
Even though experts still hold a sceptical view on the area, no serious study has been conducted to explain the strange phenomenon.
Source