Africa-Press – Kenya. An unknown number of families spent the night out in the cold after their homes were razed down by fire.
The incident occurred on Saturday, July 31, and left families of Bondeni slums in the Athi River, Machakos County counting losses after losing most of their belongings.
Athi River sub-county police commander Anderson Njagi confirmed there were no injuries or casualties during the fire.
On Sunday morning, July 11, two people died after a fire broke out burning down houses in the Mukuru Fuata slum in Nairobi.
The fire incident left one person nursing serious burn injuries, which was confirmed by Makadara Police boss Timon Odingo.
Firefighters had a difficult time accessing the area before they finally extinguished the fire.
According to Timon, the fire left some 131 families homeless. The fire was suspected to have been caused by a candle that was left in one of the houses burning, which triggered the fire.
The police opened an investigation suspecting that the inferno might have been caused by faulty electricity lines illegally connected to the houses.
“Although there was no electricity in the said slum, KPLC will investigate further to determine whether there were people connecting power illegally during the incident since a transformer serving the slum was earlier unmounted by KPLC officials,” Odingo told Nation.
Those who perished in the inferno were positively identified as Melvin Anyona who was aged seven and James Atambo, aged 40.
The slum’s security chairman, Moses Mavesi, stated that the fire started around 12.30 am on Sunday.
“The fire started at the house of the late Mr Atambo who lived with another man who escaped death by a whisker. The deceased collapsed after smoke engulfed him as his body was burnt by flames. His colleague managed to jump into the Ngong River and fortunately did not get hurt,” Mavesi also told Nation.
