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Fire razes business empire, entrepreneur counts huge losses in aftermath
19th January, 2026 05:00 PM
A youthful entrepreneur from Vihiga County is counting losses after a fire razed his Information Communication Technology (ICT) cybercafe worth millions of shillings on Sunday, 18th January, at night.
Jonnie Egesa, who has set up an ICT cyber at the Luanda market called ‘Huduma Cyber,’ had his premises destroyed by fire and looters, recording heavy losses.
According to Egesa, the fire started behind his business premises, where a neighbour was destroying bees using fire at night.
He said the fire spread to Hires’ premises, destroying his store, before spreading to the main computer ICT centre.
The sobbing Agesa decries that he also lost his property and Mpesa cash after looters looted his computers and Mpesa money.
He said the looters took advantage of the night and the confusion during the rescue of property to steal his property.
“I have lost my property worth millions of shillings through fire and looters. We have a fire that spread to my business premises from the neighbourhood where they used fire to kill bees,” he said.
The fire destroyed my computer, ICT, cyber and other items. Besides fire destroying my computers, I also lost my Mpesa cash and laptops to looters.
They came as rescuers, but they took advantage of the confusion to break into my Mpesa and laptop repair shop, where they stole everything,” sobs Agesa.
Agesa says most of the laptops stolen belonged to his clients who had brought them for repair.
“We have criminals who took advantage of the fire outbreak to steal laptops belonging to my customers. I have a big computer repair shop on my premises,” says Agesa.
He added, “This fire has cost me a lot of damage. I have employed over 10 youth in my cyber who have now been rendered jobless. I train youth in computer ICT and computer repair; now their training has been disrupted.”
Agesa says his family escaped unhurt, and he has evacuated them to a safer place.
He is also asking the Vihiga county government fire brigade emergency response unit to be always alert.
He says he used tap water to fight the fire despite Vihiga County having a well-equipped firefighting engine.
He says members of the public who responded to his distress calls helped him to put out the fire using dry soil and water.
Traders in Vihiga have lost their property worth millions of shillings through fire.
Luanda township MCA David Onjiri visited the site, terming the fire incident and looting of property quite unfortunate.
He also decried the slow response of police to guard property and the county emergency response team to fight fire.
“We shall not allow our traders at Luanda market to continue losing property to fire, and yet we have a county fire engine to respond to such disasters. Our police should also move with speed when such incidents happen to help stop looters,” urged Onjiri.
