Horror As Four Children Perish In House Inferno.

It was a tragic day in Kamaigua Village Kiunyu Sub-Location in Gatanga Constituency as four children aged between 1 and 5 years perished in an inferno.

The cause of the fire is unexplained but it is suspected that the fire caused when a tin lantern caught curtains of the one-roomed house at around 8pm Monday night before spreading to the entire house, consuming everything including the kids.

Mary Hang’ira Wanjala lost three of her children along with her niece in the night fire that left her homeless and without anything to call her own.

“This evening, we were caught up with a very unfortunate incident where we lost four children in a fire. I understand that Mary Hang’ira Wanjala left the kids bin the house to attend to her ailing elderly father in law, just about 200 metres away from their one-roomed house. She had locked it from the outside and upon return from her dad’s house, she was met with a very big fire consuming the house,” said Francis Kamau Mungai, the area chief.

He said that Mary screamed for help and within a very short time the neighbours came to put off the fire. However, their response did not bear fruit as they were overwhelmed by the flames that eventually consumed everything that was in the house.

Mary lost her 4-year old twin daughters, Nduta Chege and Wanjiku Chege both pre-unit pupils as well as her one and a half year old son Wanjihia Chege. Her niece, 5 year old Favour who is a Standard 1 pupil also perished with her kids.

Mary Njeri Kamau who is a neighbour to the affected family says that she was among the first people to arrive in the scene but by the time other neighbours arrived to help, the fire was just too big and overwhelmed the villagers.

“We tried all we could to put off the fire but it was just too big for us. Nothing was salvaged in the house. The children were burnt beyond recognition,” said Njeri.

Area MCA who is also Murang’a Assembly Deputy Speaker Gachui Mungai, thanked the residents for their response but was sad that they were unable to save the lives of these innocent children. He dispelled rumours that the Murang’a County Government firefighters were incompetent saying that no one called them in time to put off the fire.

He appealed to well-wishers and the Murang’a County Government through it Special programmes’ Department to come to the aid of the affected family.

“As you can see, they have lost everything in the fire. This is a poor family and cannot manage to raise the money to put up another structure. The father is a casual labourer in Nairobi. I therefore appeal to well-wishers and especially the department of special programmes in Murang’a County to assist them in their funeral arrangements as well as in rebuilding their lives again. I would also request the government of Mwangi Wa Iria to consider absorbing this man into the county government,” said Gachui.

The bodies of the deceased are lying in General Kago Funeral Home in Thika.