A confused and mourning nation

We have a baby-sized Wal-Mart here in Kenya. It’s called Nakumatt. It’s run by a South African conglomerate here. We hit Nakumatt about once a month (it’s in Nairobi so it’s never a quick trip there) and stock up big time. But last week’s sad headline about Nakumatt proves that while Western methods of shopping may have arrived in Africa, traditional sensibilities and fears still reign.

At least 49 people died in a Nakumatt fire last week. As smoke started filling the large store, the generator went off and left hundreds of customers in darkness. As they fought their way through the dark store towards the lit exits, the doors were locked. Locked exits in a fire? Are you serious?

The employees were so in fear of immediate looting (a real fear) that they locked the doors to keep potential looters inside the store in (and looters who might come from the outside out). What they did instead, tragically, was locked dozens of people inside a burning building.

Poverty and theft are so rampant in Africa that the employees of a successful business allowed their petty responsibilities overstep their human responsibilities to protect and save their fellow man. Forty-nine lives lost in order to potentially save a few thousand dollars worth of merchandise. Such a sad clashing of worlds.

And then on Saturday, another money-related disaster in Molo, Kenya. A fuel tanker overturned on a busy roadway. Instead of staying clear of the dangerous situation, poor Kenyans ran to the spill with containers. They wanted to take advantage of the free fuel.
The hapless truck driver attempted to salvage something good from his mistake so he began charging people to steal fuel from his wrecked vehicle. Allegedly, an angry man who had no money to pay the truck driver decided to lash out.

He lit the accident site on fire.

Over 100 are confirmed dead. Dozens more are suffering from severe burns and more are likely to die from their wounds.

Truck wrecks can happen anywhere. Store fires can happen anywhere. It’s not like those two incidents were the tragedies. The tragic thing is when the basic need for survival (money, jobs) overshadows basic laws of safety and multiplies the disastrous effects of disasters.

It’ll be interesting to see what fall-out results from these two preposterous tragedies. Government regulations? Employee training programs? Different policies on security when disasters occur? More common sense teaching of the dangers of fuel and fire?

Or will Kenyans lash out at some secondary target like Nakumatt or a trucking company, rather than acknowledge that their real enemy is abject poverty and the stupid things it makes people do?