In no more than two months, families and friends of victims have had to cope up with what appear as scenes from hell.

Barely a day after 100 people were killed and about 200 others injured in a Petrol fire in Sinai Lunga Lunga slum of Nairobi, 11 people were killed in Olkalau and Nyahururu towns in Nyandarua County while others were blinded after they consumed an illicit liqour they have nicknamed Yokozuna.

The Monday morning fire tragedy occurred when slum dwellers and villagers had rushed to scoop petrol on the Mombasa-Nairobi pipeline that had leaked.

Among those killed are pupils from a privately owned school in the slum called Jamaica Academy and children at a Baby care center at the slum.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga who led top government officials at the scene expressed his disbelief and said the government would pay for the victims’ medical bill while Kenya Pipeline Company would compensate families of the dead.

Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi said his ministry had embarked on an investigation to unravel the cause of frequent pipeline leaks in the country.

While government officials convey their condolences, the members of the public are a worried lot because such tragedies have occurred, but there is no sign they will be abated.

Elvis Apuot, a cobbler in Kapsabet town says that the government is ill-prepared to handle accidents and tragedies.

“Right now if fire breaks out here in Kapsabet, we will have to wait for the fire brigade people to be ferried from Eldoret town, 70 Kilometres away”, he said.

He argues that if the government was interested in the plight of the populace, then facilities would be everywhere, including villages.

But Ezekiel Mosbey, a medical laboratory scientist at University of Eastern Africa, Baraton and an aspirant for Aldai parliamentary seat in Nandi County disagrees.

He says Kenyans do not take safety precautions despite earlier disasters: “The public is driven by greed to scoop oil. Earlier disasters seem not to have taught as a lesson” Mosbei says.

According to Maiyo Bin Maiyo, a clerk with the Students Association of Baraton University (SABU), people may be living in harsh times, but that does not mean they risk their lives.

“There is need for Kenyans to value their lives even if the economic crisis is high. This is not the right time to shift blames but learn from the past” Maiyo states.

The disasters are taking place in large scale. Last month, residents of Kiwathei village in Kagundo had to grapple with the loss of 23 people in a grisly road accident.  

The passengers, among them, six from one family, were on their way to a wedding ceremony.

In February, 2009, shock gripped the country after an oil spill in Sachangwan in Molo and a Nakumatt super market killed a total of 145 people within a span of two weeks.

At the time, a furious Kenyan First Lady Lucy Kibaki blamed Internal Security Minister Professor George Saitoti for negligence of duty, a move that caused uproar within government circles.

The Sachangwan fire only rivaled the Sidindi fire tragedy in Siaya County in 1998 when a fuel tanker rolled into a maize plantation, killing scores who had gone to scoop the oil.

The tragedies are many.

The collapse of buildings have been blamed on rogue contractors and corrupt government officials who do not follow building regulations while deaths as a result of illicit liquors have been blamed on incompetent Administrative officers who have been accused several times of engaging in the sale of the illicit brew, nicknamed “Yokozuna”.

Nation newspaper Columnist Jaindi Kisero castigates the unplanned informalization for the disasters in urban slums.

“When you build houses made of highly inflammable materials atop an oil pipeline and close to oil depots and tankers, you are courting disaster," Kisero argues in his Wednesday column.  

As the blame game continues the question which begs answer now is, for how long will lives be lost due to carelessness by the people and the government’s ill-preparedness?