No buying fuel using jerrycans in Thika

Thika Security Team during the meeting with the petrol station heads.

Anyone seeking to buy petrol in a jerrycan in Thika will have to produce their identification, the vehicle they are taking the fuel to and their photograph taken, the local security team has announced.

The move is aimed at curbing the recent wave of school unrest sweeping across the country with the Thika West Deputy County Commissioner Tom Anjere saying they have intelligence that petrol was used in most of the schools that have been burnt down.
Addressing a meeting between the Thika petrol station owners and the security team on Wednesday, Anjere said that luckily, in Thika sub-county, there has not been any school burnt down so far, and they were taking all the necessary measures to ensure no such case occurred.
“We want to know those buying petrol in jerrycans and have their contacts so that when there is a fire incident, we can know whom to follow,” said Anjere adding that only petrol station supervisors would authorise the sale of petrol in jerrycans.
Anjere said that they appreciate the important role that the petrol stations play in the country’s economy, and they are not intending to jeopardize their operations but they are just taking precautionary measures, “In the coast region we have had cases of people who buy petrol in jerrycans which is later used to make Improvised Explosive Devices (IED),” explained Anjere.
Anjere said that they hoped the move would deter anyone who wanted to buy petrol to burn schools, adding that they will also be looking at the age of the people buying the petrol to gauge if they are students.
“Those who have machines at home which require petrol will have to produce and introduction letter from the area chief,” said Anjere.
Thika West Sub-County Acting Criminal Investigation officer Micah Chepkwony said the petrol stations would be required to maintain a duty rooster of all the attendants so that they could tame those who work in cahoots with the criminals.

Thika DCIO Micah Chepkwony addressing the press in Thika.

Chepkwony said that they would be launching a crackdown on all the unlicensed petrol station operators in the area.
“All the petrol stations operating near schools will also be vetted,” said Chepkwony.
Some of the petrol stations operators said that they had directives from their headquarters not to sell petrol in jerrycans and their common customers, and those who buy in bulk were required to get an approval from the petrol station supervisor.
Some of them also said that they stopped selling petrol to boda boda operators especially at night as they pretended to be customers, only to rob from them later.