AT least 400 people were left homeless after a mid-morning fire gutted their homes at Mukuru slums in Nairobi yesterday.
The fire also reduced High Cue Academy to ashes.
The inferno destroyed residential houses.
It also destroyed business premises, including shops and grocery stores.
A church had to suspend service as worshippers fled for their safety.
Nobody was injured.
Makadara police boss Nehemiah Langat said the fire might have been caused by an electric fault.
He told the Star on the phone that 80 houses were destroyed.
However, residents said more than 500 houses were burned.
Langat said most residents are being sheltered by friends.
Most residents were in church.
They came back to find their homes destroyed.
“Many people are away and the few of us who were left could not put out the fire,” a resident told the Star at the scene.
“We escaped with clothes while other could not save anything.”
The resident said even if they risked their lives to rescue the property, they would still have lost it to goons, who take advantage of such situations to steal.
The Nairobi fire service arrived minutes after the fire started, but watched helplessly from a distance as their engine trucks could not access the area due to narrow roads.
