Nine-month-old baby dies after fire burns house in Kisii

A nine-month-old baby was on Monday morning burnt to death in a house fire Menyinkwa estate, Kisii Town.

Witnesses said the child was sleeping when fire broke out at around 9am.

The fire is suspected to have begun when the child’s elderly sister, lit a match and set the mattress on which the bay slept on fire.

The sister, however, escaped unhurt after she ran out as flames engulfed the house.

Witnesses said that they saw the house aflame but efforts to put out the fire proved futile.

"We saw smoke billowing from the house and rushed there and put it out.

“It was, however, too late to save the infant," Ms Nancy Kwamboka, an eyewitness, told the Nation.

She said the child had already died by the time they entered the burning house.

"When we entered the house, we found the child was already dead," she said.

The child's mother, Ms Margaret Nyachoti, fainted on viewing the child's remains.

"How could this happen in my absence? I am devastated," the distraught mother wailed.

County Police Commander Agnes Mudambah said she sent officers to the scene after a distress signal was raised.

“Officers rushed to the scene after they were called by members of the community policing group. They tried to help but it was too late,” she told the Nation.

The body was taken to the Kisii Level Six Hospital mortuary.