NYAHURURU, Kenya, Feb 23 – At least fifty families have been rendered homeless after a fierce fire gutted their houses on Sunday night.
Goods worth thousands of shillings went up in smoke as the fire spread across several plots in the 11pm incident at Manguo estate, within the Nyahururu municipality.
According to area residents, the fire is said to have been started by a man who had earlier in the day had a domestic quarrel with his wife.
A witness, Benson Maina, said the man had intended the act to be ‘a punishment’ for his wife.
“The fierce fire razed the entire wooden plot extending to other adjacent plots in the area,” he told Capital News.
It took more than five hours to put out the blaze, because the Nyahururu Municipal Council fire engine could not access the scene, owing to the poor road network.
The residents, who spoke to Capital News, blamed the local Authority for doing very little to clear and open up access roads in the area.
“Some of the roads are under construction, but the council has put huge stones and have not levelled them for the last three months. It is because of this that the vehicle could not gain access to the site.”
Mr Maina said that the victims of the fire, most of whom had moved to the area as a result of the post poll chaos, were forced to sleep out in the cold.
Area police boss Charles Wasike visited the scene on Monday and said investigations had been launched to establish the cause of the inferno.
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