Grim history of fuel tanker accidents in Kenya: See the free emergency numbers to call

Kenya has a grim history of people running towards overturned fuel tankers.

A tanker crashes, petrol begins spilling, jerricans appear and a crowd gathers.

Then, sometimes within minutes, a fire turns the road into a death trap.

The pattern has produced some of Kenya's worst road-related fires.

History of deadly tanker disasters in Kenya

On July 13, 1998, a fuel tanker overturned near Sidindi in Ugenya.

Villagers rushed to scoop the leaking petrol, some intending to sell it.

A fire swept through the crowd, killing 33 people, according to contemporary reporting by The EastAfrican.

A later Daily Nation retrospective gave a higher figure of 39, illustrating how casualty totals from older disasters have sometimes varied between accounts.

Eleven years later, on January 31, 2009, came the Sachangwan disaster in Molo.

An estimated 42,000 litres of petrol were being carried when the tanker overturned along the Nakuru-Eldoret road.

Hundreds gathered with containers and makeshift siphons.

Kenya Red Cross initially reported at least 111 deaths and more than 200 injuries; other later Kenyan records put the death toll above 140.

The scene was particularly dangerous because people were standing in and around areas where petrol had accumulated.

Witness accounts described residents drilling into the tanker and attempting to speed up the flow of fuel.

Then came Malanga in Gem, Siaya County, on July 17, 2021.

A tanker collided with a milk truck and overturned.

Villagers rushed to siphon petrol.

The tanker caught fire, killing 13 people at the scene.

The toll later rose to 22, while more than 30 people suffered serious burns.

Malanga was barely 10 kilometres from Sidindi, the site of the 1998 disaster.

The same road corridor had therefore produced two deadly fuel-siphoning fires in the space of 23 years.

These are not the only tanker tragedies.

The 2011 Suo River tanker fire in Busia killed eight people and injured 37, according to a review of Kenyan tanker disasters.

And in 2016, the Karai tanker crash near Naivasha killed 39 people, although that disaster was principally a multi-vehicle highway fire rather than a fuel-siphoning incident.

The pattern is therefore bigger than one behaviour:

Kenya has a recurring problem involving fuel transport, road crashes, hazardous spills, crowd exposure and emergency response.

Petrol does not need a visible flame to be dangerous

The most important thing to understand about spilled petrol is that the vapour can be more dangerous than the liquid people can see.

The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health lists gasoline's flash point at about -45°F (-43°C) and its flammable range in air at approximately 1.4% to 7.6%.

That means a roadside spill can produce an ignitable mixture without anyone seeing a flame.

Gasoline vapour is also heavier than air.

According to NOAA's CAMEO Chemicals database, vapour can move along the ground, reach an ignition source some distance away and then flash back towards the original spill.

This is why a person can be standing beside an apparently calm tanker and still be inside a potentially dangerous vapour cloud.

The ignition source could be a cigarette or match, an electrical fault, a spark or another source of sufficient heat.

The danger also increases when people are pouring, transferring or otherwise agitating the fuel.

The grim statistics on tanker fire fatalities

Research covering 224 oil-tanker fires and explosions worldwide between 1997 and 2017 found at least 2,909 deaths and 3,038 hospitalisations.

The study found that nearly half of the fatalities were associated with the practice of scooping spilled fuel, with 94% of deaths occurring in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

The finding matters because it shows that the crowd is not merely a bystander.

In tanker disasters, the decision to approach the spill can substantially increase the number of people exposed to the eventual fire.

Kenya's road network carries most of the risk

EPRA's own data shows why fuel-transport safety remains important.

The Authority's recent petroleum accident report found that 83% of reported petroleum incidents occurred during road transport.

Its accident records also show petroleum/LPG road accidents rising from 47 in 2022 to 51 in 2023 and 53 in 2024.

EPRA identifies factors including excessive speed, road conditions and design, interaction with other road users, vehicle-related problems and weaknesses in emergency response.

That means the danger does not start when villagers arrive carrying jerricans.

It starts with moving highly flammable products through a road system shared with cars, buses, motorcycles and pedestrians.

Laws on spilled fuel

There is a legal dimension too.

Section 99(1)(e) of Kenya's Petroleum Act, 2019 makes it an offence to illegally acquire, handle or possess petroleum products.

The law provides, on conviction, for a fine of not less than Sh10 million, imprisonment for not less than five years, or both for the offences covered by that paragraph.

That does not mean every person found near a tanker is automatically guilty of that offence; the circumstances and evidence matter.

But, spilled fuel from an accident is not legally transformed into someone's property simply because it is lying on the road.

Kenya's National Disaster Management Unit lists 999, 112 and 911 as emergency numbers.