At least 20 houses were burnt down on Thursday night in the Njuguini area of Athi River after a mysterious fire broke out, reportedly trapping an unknown number of people.
Reports indicate that the fire broke out at around 8 pm while most people were inside their homes, forcing the residents to scamper for safety as the flames intensified.
During the incident, the locals attempted to rescue their belongings. However, the fire quickly escalated, engulfing an entire building and burning property of unknown value.
The tragedy left several families homeless, with those affected forced to spend the night in the cold, while some sought shelter from neighbouring estates within Machakos.
While the exact number of those affected by the fire is yet to be established, there are still no reports of fatalities from the night's incident.
The fire raged in the residential building for almost two hours before firefighters from the Nairobi and Machakos County Disaster Management teams arrived and put out the flames.
However, by the time of their arrival, the fire had already burned down a large chunk of the building, with no significant amount of valuables rescued from the tragedy.
Videos and images of the incident that were widely shared on the internet showed the storey building completely engulfed in fire as the helpless residents watched as their property went up in flames from a distance.
Firefighters could also be seen battling the raging flames as some of the residents attempted to retrieve their belongings from the parts of the building that had not yet caught fire.
Following the incident, police officers have since commenced investigations to establish to main cause of the fire, with those affected urged to seek alternative shelters.
The latest tragedy adds to the number of similar occurrences witnessed across the country in the past month. Just a fortnight ago, fire burnt down several houses in Tassia Estate, Embakasi, Nairobi County.
The incident took place on August 26, after the flame broke out in one of the informal houses, before it quickly spread to other nearby houses.
Attempts by the local community to put out the fire proved futile, as the flames proved too strong to contain, prompting locals to flee for safety as the structures burned down.
However, after about an hour, Nairobi County firefighters and the Kenya Red Cross Society arrived at the scene and put out the fire.
