This archive report was first published on 6 December 2019.
On December 6, 2019, a house fire ravaged a home in Kibingoti village, Ndhia Constituency, Kirinyaga County, leaving its owner, Elizabeth Muthoni Gacheru, a primary school teacher and widow, counting her losses.
Ms Gacheru had spotted a snake slithering into her house while she was washing clothes. In a desperate attempt to smoke out the reptile, she set a piece of cloth on fire and threw it where the snake was hiding.
However, the plan backfired, and the fire spread to other rooms in the house, gutting the roof and causing an estimated Sh1 million worth of damage. It took the intervention of county government firefighters to put out the blaze.
Despite their efforts, nothing was salvaged from the house, leaving Ms Gacheru with a weakened structure. A local resident, Nicholas Maina, expressed sympathy for the teacher and announced plans to organize a fundraiser to help her rebuild.
The whereabouts of the snake remain unclear.
