A four-year-old boy died after a fire gutted two houses in Dandora Phase Two, Nairobi, on Wednesday night.
Police officers who responded to the incident found two iron-sheet houses engulfed in flames. Residents had gathered at the scene and were battling the fire before managing to extinguish it at about 11 pm.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the fire started in one of the houses before spreading to a neighbouring structure.
During the incident, the four-year-old boy became trapped in the blaze and died. Other members of the affected family were safely evacuated and escaped without injuries.
The cause of the fire had not been established by the time police visited the scene.
Authorities said the two houses were completely destroyed, and property of unknown value was lost in the fire.
Crime Scene Investigation officers from Buru-Buru processed and documented the scene as investigations into the cause of the fire began.
The child's body was moved to Nairobi City Mortuary pending a post-mortem examination.
Police have launched investigations to establish the cause of the fire.
Meanwhile, police in Kwale County have launched investigations following the death of a local tourist who was found unresponsive in his room at a resort in Diani.
The deceased was a guest at the resort.
The incident came to light after hotel management noticed that he had failed to check out by the scheduled time of 10:00 a.m.
Efforts to reach him through the room telephone were unsuccessful, while repeated knocks on the door went unanswered.
Concerned about his welfare, hotel staff used a master key card to gain access to the room, where they found him lying face down on the floor.
Blood-soaked towels were reportedly found next to the body.
Upon examination, a doctor confirmed that the guest was unresponsive and showed no signs of life. He was pronounced dead at about 11:00 a.m.
The body was taken to the mortuary at Pandya Memorial Hospital, where a post-mortem examination is expected to establish the cause of death.
Police said investigations are ongoing and that no conclusion has been reached pending the outcome of the autopsy and forensic examinations.
In Embu County, a search operation was launched after a man reportedly drowned while swimming in Kariare Dam in the Dallas area of Embu West Sub-County.
The incident was reported at about 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday after members of the public alerted authorities that a person had drowned in the dam.
A team visited the scene at Kariare Dam near Dallas Shopping Centre. Witnesses told investigators that the deceased, identified only as Nick and popularly known as “Jitu,” had been seen swimming in the dam at about 1:00 p.m. before disappearing beneath the water.
Members of the public reported that he drowned in the middle section of the dam, making immediate recovery efforts difficult.
The Embu County Disaster Management Team was notified and is expected to lead retrieval efforts.
