The blast took place in the city's Lunga Lunga industrial area on September 12, and police and troops cordoned off the area as firefighters battled fierce flames in the surrounding shanty town.

A Red Cross official, Pamela Indiaka, said at least 75 bodies had been recovered. Some reports put the toll at more than 100 dead. More than 110 people were injured.

The pipeline runs through the densely populated Sinai slum area between Nairobi's city centre and the airport.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who visited the scene of the blast, described what he had seen as "shocking" and "terrible". "This, I think, is one of the worst disasters that has happened here in this country in the oil sector," he said.

Richard Leresian, the head of the Kenyatta National Hospital, said 112 people had been brought to the hospital, most of them with severe burns.

There have been other deaths in Kenya involving people collecting leaking fuel.

More than 100 people died in Molo, western Kenya, in 2009 after a fire on an overturned tanker.