Thika man vaporizes in a steel smelting firm

Caleb Otieno always went with a colleague to lunch shifts at a steel company in Thika.

Last Friday, he handed his colleague Sh50 to go to the factory for lunch. However, when a colleague returned with lunch, Otino was gone. Otieno’s job is to send metal parts through a rolling mill into a red-hot furnace.

When he threw in some pieces, his glove got caught in the metal, causing the mill to drag him to the relentless machine, which crushed him to pieces and threw him into the kiln.

His arms and head were crushed first. Its liquefied body then mixes with molten steel, leaving only countless bone particles at its bottom. The horrific event left a scar of fear and grief on his colleagues who didn’t know what to do, including his food. Otieno, 34, is from Kogony, Kisumu.

He came to the city about 10 years ago after graduating from Kisumu Day High School in Class 4. He started out as a temporary worker at Bidco Africa and later worked at Blue Nile Rolling Mills Company for seven years until his tragic death.

DCIO Joseph Thuvi from Thika Street told The Star they visited the facility on Sunday and collected ash and particles that looked like bone fragments from the furnace.

Thuvi said they treated the incident as a normal work-related incident.

As part of the investigation, the company’s directors and human resources officers visited DCI offices on Monday and Tuesday morning.