A 48-year-old woman has suffered a 46 per cent burn on her body during a dawn fire incident that razed her semi-permanent house to the ground in a suspected arson act at Mutungara village in Mwea Constituency, Kirinyaga County.
Confirming the incident, Mwea East Sub-county Police Commander Daniel Kitavi said the woman escaped death by a whisker as the incident occurred while she was asleep.
She was then rushed to Kimbimbi Sub County Hospital for first aid treatment and later referred to Kenyatta National Hospital.
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The woman, who is a widow, was all alone in the house during the incident as her three children had travelled.
"She was woken up by a loud bang from the outside and before long, flames had engulfed the house but luckily she was able to get out of the house through the window," the police boss said via a phone interview.
He added that they have already launched investigations to establish the real cause of the fire.
“The issue is currently under investigation,” he said.
Residents said that the fire broke out at around 4am Tuesday and that she suffered the burns when she was struggling to break and leave the building through the window.
"After she was successfully rescued she told us that the house had already been locked from the outside and therefore, the only escape route was through the window," a witness told K24 Digital.
Jane Wanjiru, a Mutungara village resident said that everything in the house was burnt to ashes.
“The loss amounts to hundreds of thousands of shillings, from plastic water tanks to personal documents like title deeds as well as books for her kids,” she said.
The residents are now calling for speedy investigations to be carried out to establish and bring to book suspects of the heinous act.
