Two children and their mother were burnt to death when fire razed their house in Ma-ya-Ihii village in Kikuyu district in Kiambu county yesterday morning. Beatrice Wanjiku, 32, and her two children Kevin Njoroge, 6, and Peter Karoki, 4, were asleep when the fire gutted their house at around 3am. Wanjiku is a single mother and has been living with her parents in the three-roomed house. Her parents were not in the house during the time of the fire.

The wooden house had a stone chimney which was left standing. Property worth thousands of shillings was destroyed as nothing was salvaged. Lari deputy police chief Jonathan Kisaka said the cause of the fire was not known though investigations have commenced to establish its source. Kisaka said another son, Philip Kiriira, 9, was not at home as he had visited his uncle the previous day in Zambezi.

Wanjiku's brother, Bernard Mbugua, who lives in the same compound said that he was woken up by the light from the flames. He said that he went outside, found the house on fire and called for help. Mbugua said when the neighbours came, they tried to force open the door and break down the walls so that they could rescue his sister and her children to no avail. "The wind was blowing and the fire became fierce and we were not able to salvage anything not even the furniture," he said. Area councillor Michael Mathieni said they recovered a gas cylinder through he could not conclude if it was the cause of the fire.