Nairobi fire victims to be buried in Vihiga

Onlookers at the scene of the fire which killed three siblings in Nairobi's Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums. PHOTO | SAMMY KIMATU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

The charred remains of three siblings who died in a fire at 48 Zone in Nairobi’s Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums on Tuesday will be transported to their parents' rural home Thursday.

Ms Hyles Mwenesi, the children's aunt, said the family cannot have the bodies preserved at the City Mortuary for long.

“The children were badly burnt and we have decided to bury them at Shamakhokho in Vihiga,” said Ms Mwenesi.

The siblings died on Tuesday morning after fire gutted houses in the slums.

Witnesses said their mother left the children, aged between 6 weeks and 3 years, unattended in the house around 7.30am when the fire started.

“She had gone to buy mandazi for breakfast and left tea boiling on a Kerosene stove boiling,” Dominic Njuguna, who is the chairman of security affairs in the slum, said.

Neighbours could not get into the burning house because of raging flames. The flames spread quickly to other houses, destroying 20 of them.

The woman’s husband had left for work when the incident happened.