Nairobi — A Magistrate sitting at the Milimani Law Court freed operators of the illegal gas plant in Embakasi in May 2020 against sentencing guidelines.

Fresh details that emerged on Friday, a day after a tragic explosion at the plant killed three people leaving over 280 others injured, indicated that the operators secured freedom after paying Sh500,000 in fines far below the minimum sentencing threshold.

Oil marketers under the Petroleum Institute of East Africa (PIEA) said the facility's owner and clients who distributed his product were convicted of criminal offenses on November 9, 2020.

"Following our visit to the site soon after the explosion and early this morning we have established that this is the same site where a criminal case was instituted against the proprietor of this facility and some of his clients under criminal case number E3776/2020 at Milimani law courts in Nairobi," PIEA General Manager Wanjiku Manyara stated.

Manyara noted in line with the High Court's guidance that the proprietor's minimum sentence ought to have been set at Sh20 million or a jail term of 5 years.

The oil marketers further argued that the co-accused persons should have faced fines of at least Sh10 million with the alternative of serving 5 years in jail.

PIEA also faulted the unnamed court official for authorizing the release of impounded motor vehicles including two LPG tankers one of which was involved in the Thursday night incident.