An 11-year-old boy died tragically after being electrocuted on the balcony of a residential apartment in Embakasi Villa, Nairobi, in an incident police have linked to low-hanging live electrical wires.
According to witnesses and police reports, the child was standing on the fourth-floor balcony of their rented home on May 18 when a passing lorry made contact with the dangling wires.
The wires, jolted by the contact, touched a metallic grill where the boy was leaning—sending a fatal electric shock through his body.
Neighbours rushed the unconscious boy to a nearby hospital, but he was declared dead on arrival. His body, which bore visible burn injuries on his left-hand fingers, was moved to the Nairobi Funeral Home for a post-mortem examination.
Police said the lorry driver drove off, seemingly unaware of the tragic incident.
Authorities have launched investigations and are also probing possible illegal or unsafe power connections, which are common in Nairobi’s informal settlements.
Meanwhile, Nairobi police are handling a separate murder probe after the body of an unidentified man was discovered on the roadside in Kibera slums near the Railways Police Post.
The body, which bore no visible injuries, was moved to City Mortuary pending identification and post-mortem.
Elsewhere in Tharaka Nithi, the lifeless body of 73-year-old Robert Kathenya was found seated in his house with his head slumped forward.
Police said the elderly man was last seen on May 16 at a local market, and his body was discovered two days later. His remains were taken to a nearby mortuary for preservation and autopsy.
