A nine-year-old girl was electrocuted over the weekend while a three-year-old boy was critically injured in Bangladesh, an informal settlement in Mombasa.
The deceased and the injured boy were playing with others when they ran over an uninsulated low hanging-electric wire.
She was pronounced dead at the Mikindani health centre and the body moved to the Coast General Hospital mortuary.
The critically injured three-year-old boy is admitted at the same hospital but his condition is stable.
Neighbours said they heard the deceased screaming for help and rushed out to see her lying on the ground while the injured boy was holding her hands.
The girl’s father, Simon Nyataba, told journalists that his second-born daughter was a Class Four pupil at St. Peter’s primary school in the neighbourhood.
The distraught father said he is saddened by the tragic death and wants Kenya Power Company to compensate the family.
“It is very difficult and impossible to forget such a tragic accident like this,” Nyataba said.
Angry residents said the death is the second in a span of a week after a 13-year-old boy was electrocuted in similar circumstances after leaning on the same uninsulated electric wire.
A local human rights activist Joseph Oluoch said such incidents are common in informal settlements and called on Kenya Power to fix faulty lines to avert more deaths.
Oluoch said it is regrettable that Kenya Power often ignores reports of loose wires, especially in slums and only acts after tragedy strikes.
Mikindani ward representative, Renson Thoya, who visited the area to condole with the family, appealed to the electricity company to tighten the wires hanging dangerously in the slum.
He said the government should take action against those responsible at Kenya Power for sleeping on their job and endangering lives.
“We want Kenya Power to compensate the affected families as soon as possible and those responsible for the death through omission or commission dealt with,” he said.
The father of the three-year-old boy who is admitted to hospital, Hilton Charo, said that it is not the first time they have raised concerns over fears that the dangerous lines were a risk to human lives.
He said the wire has been down for close to two months and that their pleas to Kenya Power to fix the problem fell on deaf ears despite the danger it poses.
