House help burns boss to death in Eldoret

Residents of Shauri Yako estate, mill through a window of a house where the body of 60 years old Samwel Njagi was found lying with serious fire burns in Eldoret. (Photos: Peter Ochieng/Standard)

A man was on Saturday night burnt to death by his house help in what is alleged to have been a payment row in Shauri Yako, Eldoret.

Neighbours said they heard a commotion and screams coming from Samuel Njagi’s house at around midnight.

“We ran there only to find the house on fire. The woman who was screaming had disappeared but there were groans coming from the house. We called other neighbours who helped us put out the fire and found the owner of the house seriously burnt,” said Josphat Gachuri, a neighbour.

They rushed Mr Njagi to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival. His daughter Mary Njagi confirmed that the house help lived in the same house.

“I was called in the morning by my brother who told me our dad was missing but when I arrived home, I found that he was dead. He was burnt to death by the house help, who was the other occupant of the house. She helped to look after our younger siblings after our mother died in 2013,” said Ms Njagi.

Njagi’s oldest child, Collins Njagi, who learnt of his father’s death yesterday morning, said his father had quarrelled with the house help, only identified as Juliah, over money.

“The house help was always uncomfortable when I visited with my brother and was mistreating our younger siblings who dad had taken to our native Nyeri home. My dad, who was a mechanic in town, told me on Saturday evening that the woman had been demanding Sh10,000, which he paid the same day but I don’t know what happened,” explained Collins.

He was unsure of the house help’s terms of employment and could not tell on what grounds she was demanding Sh10,000.

A police officer who sought anonymity told The Standard that the killing seemed beyond the alleged Sh10,000 debt.

“Our preliminary reports show that the woman sometimes barred the man’s older children from visiting him. It is fortunate that the two younger children had been transferred to a school in Nyeri,” said the officer.

Eldoret West OCPD Samuel Mutunga said police were looking for the woman.