A three-and-a-half-year-old boy died after a fire broke out in his mother’s rented house in the Kwa Mashariki area, Mwingi Central Sub-County, Kitui County.
Police were alerted on Tuesday, August 25, and officers who visited the rental apartment established that one room of the two-room house had caught fire, burning a bed, mattress and other bedding.
According to the child’s mother, she locked the house and left the boy alone at about 2 pm.
She returned at around 5 pm and found the bed and bedding smouldering, with her son lying unconscious on his back on a spare mattress placed on the floor.
The child was rushed to Mwingi Medicare Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Police said he may have died from suffocation caused by smoke from the fire.
The scene was processed by investigators, while the child’s body, which had no visible physical injuries, was moved to Mwingi Level Four Hospital mortuary pending a full postmortem examination.
Police said the cause of the fire and the value of property destroyed had not yet been established, as investigations continued.
Meanwhile, the body of an unidentified boy, estimated to be eight years old, was recovered from Mwachema River in Msambweni Sub-County, Kwale County.
The body was discovered at about 5 pm on Tuesday, August 25, after a man heading for evening prayers encountered a group of women fishing along the river.
The women informed him that they had spotted the body of a young boy floating in the water.
Police processed and documented the scene before the body was taken to Msambweni Sub-County Hospital mortuary, where it is being preserved pending an autopsy.
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the boy’s death, while efforts are expected to establish his identity and trace his family.
Elsewhere, burnt and dismembered human remains were discovered in Lagbadana Village, Tana River County, during a search for an 11-year-old boy reported missing while grazing goats in Lagbadana.
The remains were discovered on Tuesday, August 25, by a search party formed by relatives of the missing child.
The child reportedly went missing on August 18 while grazing goats in the Lagbadana area.
Police were alerted at about 8 pm after the relatives searching for the boy came across what appeared to be the remains of a burnt human body.
Police found dismembered human body parts that had been burnt beyond recognition beneath tree roots in a dry riverbed, commonly known locally as a laga.
The scene was processed and documented by investigators before the remains were collected and transported to Garissa Level Five Hospital mortuary.
The remains will undergo autopsy and DNA analysis to establish their identity and determine whether they belong to the missing boy.
Investigations have been launched to establish the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Muhidin and the discovery of the burnt remains.
