St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic church in Kiambu County compensated the owner of the plot which was destroyed after a water tower unlocked and collapsed landing on several houses within Kiambu Municipality in March 2020.
The church also compensated the affected families by purchasing for them the property that was destroyed during the accident in which a 50,000 liters metallic tank collapsed after repair works on Block Ndumberi/Riabai/2998, Kirigiti area.
Talking to KNA from his office at the church Thursday, Fr. James Kariuki Kiarie said the church fully compensated the affected families and the collapsed structure to the tune of Sh 2.1 million. This amount of money should even have been paid by the insurance and not the church, he stated.
The cleric refuted allegations leveled against the church that the affected families were shortchanged in the compensation process.
“It was on humanitarian grounds that the church moved with speed to settle the affected families, following the unfortunate accident and the families should be contended with what they received as we cannot do anything further than what we did,” he asserted.
Fr. Kiarie enumerated that to cushion those who were injured, they relocated them to a private hospital and paid all their medical bills. “We even allowed them to be seen at the private facility until when they would fully recover, but when the hospital stopped billing us, we assumed that they had fully recovered,” he said.
Additionally, those whose houses were totally damaged, “we ensured that they were relocated to alternative houses and rent paid as their original houses were under repair. We went ahead and set up a committee which met the families, assess the property that was destroyed and purchased new ones for them.
He said for those who lost phones during the accident, the committee agreed with them that they be paid a flat rate of Sh8, 000 which they could spend on replacing the gadgets destroyed during the unfortunate accident.
It was only after the concerned people were settled that they agreed to withdraw the case from Kiambu police station, Father Kariuki stated.
By Lydia Shiloya
