Thika-based Blue Nile Rolling Mills Ltd has been making headlines ever since its employee Caleb Otieno was boiled to death after he fell into a vat of molten steel March 25th 2022.
Blue Nile Rolling Mills is entangled in a compensation row with the family of Caleb Otieno as the company is ripping them off.
Otieno’s father Martin Oraro, 74, told the press the compensation talks seem to have collapsed after the family disputed what they were offered.
The father of the deceased worker termed the amount offered as compensation by the company a ridicule to the family, given the horrific way in which his son met his death.
Oraro travelled all the way from Kisumu to Thika after he was informed of his son’s death. He met the management of Blue Nile Rolling Mills where compensation was discussed.
Blue Nile Rolling Mills offered him Ksh100,000 and when I asked them about the compensation, the HR manager told him that they would compensate him with a third of Ksh21,000 that his late son was earning per month for the five years he worked as a permanent employee.
Oraro was informed that the compensation would translate to Ksh7,000 per month. However when his other son did the calculations they realized the compensation would be Ksh420,000 for all the five years the late Caleb Otieno worked for Blue Nile Rolling Mills as a permanent employee.
The family felt cheated by the amount of compensation the company offered them yet it is safety negligence at Blue Nile Rolling Mills that made their kin to die.
Caleb Otieno’s body was burnt down to ashes when he fell into a vat of molten steel. The family will only be burying three small bags of his remains that were retrieved from the boiler, including a few joint bones and teeth.
The deceased was only 34 years old at the time of his death. What remains of his body will be buried the family home in Kisumu on Saturday April 9th.
“We managed to retrieve some few joint bones and a few teeth that we will bury this Saturday. We have preserved them at General Kago Funeral Home in Thika. We feel frustrated and we will be moving to court after the burial,” Araro told the Business Daily on Tuesday.
Blue Nile Rolling Mills Ltd is now in big trouble as Nairobi-based lawyer Harrison Musyoka has offered to give free legal services to the family of Caleb Otieno.
The lawyer says he will offer pro bono representation to the family to ensure they get justice, arguing that the Ksh420,000 compensation offered by the company for their son’s death is laughable and a big mockery to the family.
“These people are trying to subvert the rule of law by offering compensation which is basically not commensurate with what the family underwent in terms of trauma, pain and suffering and of course they have no body to bury,” Musyoka said.
Musyoka noted that the employer should consider all the issues and offer the family a reasonable amount.
“If we are instructed, we will engage the company for negotiations. If they fail, we will have to instigate a legal proceeding against the company,” he added.
The Blue Nile Rolling Mills Ltd is a sister company of Blue Nile Wire Products Ltd, the manufacturer of barbed wire. The two companies are owned and managed by Blue Nile Group.
The Blue Nile Rolling Mills, manufactures the Kifaru brand of steel products and recently announced that it had received Ksh862 million from the International Finance Corporation, the private lending arm of the World Bank, to fund its expansion in Thika, Kiambu, where its manufacturing plant is based.
