Kasarani: Woman sets house ablaze killing self and child

Police in Kasarani, Nairobi County are investigating the tragic deaths of a 30-year-old woman and her child who perished in a house fire on Thursday night, in an incident being treated as a case of suicide by fire.

Anne Wanjala reportedly spent the better part of Thursday indoors at her home in Season ACK, in the company of her husband Dennis Sikuku and their two children, before their father left for work in the evening.

Shortly afterwards, Wanjala reportedly sent her house help, Lucy Kimumbui, to a nearby shop to buy some milk; upon her return, she found the door to the house barricaded from the inside.

"She (house help) tried calling the woman to open the door but her calls went unanswered then suddenly she saw the house engulfed in flames," a police report documenting the incident reads. 

After raising alarm, neighbours successfully doused the inferno, rescuing and subsequently ferrying one of Wanjala's child, who was in critical condition, to Ruaraka Neema Uhai Hospital.

Unfortunately, by this point, Wanjala and her other child had already been burnt beyond recognition.

The house's caretaker, Bonface Mosoti, subsequently reported the incident to Kasarani Police Station. 

"Orderly Officer Kasarani, Deputy OCS Kasarani, Duty Officer Kasarani and DCI team proceeded to the scene and entered house no A1 on the ground floor where the lifeless bodies of a woman and her child were lying on the bed. Their bodies burnt beyond recognition," reads a police report on the incident.

No suicide note was found at the scene, but police recovered a container suspected to have been filled with petrol, as well as a matchbox, inside the bedroom where Wanjala and her child's lifeless bodies were discovered.

Their bodies have been taken to City mortuary.