Two children die in Kirinyaga night fire
Debries of a house which was reduced to ashes after it caught fire at Mutira village in Kirinyaga County on October 24, 2022. Two children died during the incident.
Two children died when a fire broke out in their family house in Mutira, Kirinyaga County.
The children were burnt beyond recognition in the incident that happened at 8pm on Sunday.
Alice Wambui, 5, and her brother John Njiani Njumbi, 3, were alone in the building when the tragedy struck.
Witnesses said the children lived with their father, Daniel Mugo. Their mother left two years ago following a domestic quarrel.
Mr Mugo, they said, left the children in the house and went to see his father to talk about work. Both are stonemasons.
He returned to his house to find a huge fire engulfing it and his children crying for help.
He raised the alarm, drawing the attention of residents, who fought the fire for hours in a bid to save the children, but they were overwhelmed.
Kirinyaga firefighters responded and put out the fire but could not rescue the children.
The timber house was destroyed and nothing was salvaged.
Police arrived shortly after the incident and pulled out the bodies of the children from the debris and took them to the Kerugoya Referral Hospital mortuary. The cause of the fire could not be immediately established.
The children's grandmother, Faith Wangechi, said she was perturbed by the incident.
"I helped my son to take care of his children and now I'm in deep sorrow following what happened," Ms Wangechi said.
She added: "My son had been called by his father to plan where they would go for work the following day when his house caught fire in mysterious circumstances."
Firefighter John Kiama said the inferno was huge and the children could not have survived.
"When we arrived, we found the whole house had collapsed under fire. We fought the fire but unfortunately the children lost their lives,” he said.
Kirinyaga Central police boss John Torori said investigations were underway and asked family members to be patient.
"We shall not rest until we establish the cause of the fire which claimed the lives of the innocent children," he said.
