A Baringo teacher was left only with a red T-shirt and a pair of trousers after a suspected arson fire razed his five-room wooden house in Kabarnet town on Tuesday night.
Josphat Ruto, a teacher at AIC Visa-Oshwal Primary School, said all his family's possessions and clothing were destroyed. He estimated the loss at Sh2.5 million.
No one was home at the time.
"Absolutely nothing was rescued. I was shocked but I just leave everything to God,” Ruto said.
Kabarnet chief Stephen Chepyegon said the case was complicated, Ruto would record a statement with police so they could begin to investigate the cause of the fire.
Ruto said he was separated from his wife, another primary school teacher.
He said his children were yet to arrive home after the closure notice was announced due to the coronavirus.
"I received a phone call from a neighbour at around 9pm that my house was on fire. When I got there the building was already in flames," Ruto said.
He thanked the residents and the fire brigade from Kabarnet town.
The teacher is appealing to friends and well-wishers to help him restart his life.
He ruled out an electric fault, saying the house was closed and all the power switched off.
"I suspect someone with ill motives," he said.
He lost five beds, two TV sets, a decoder, sofa sets, five tables, a library and a cooking gas cylinder.
The fire broke out barely two weeks after a fire razed property worth millions of shillings at a Kabarnet town garage.
Residents blame the frequent fire losses in the town on the ineffective response team, an understaffed and ill-equipped fire brigade.
(Edited by V. Graham)
