MCA aspirant, family set on fire by alleged opponents

An aspiring Member of County Assembly for Lakisama Ward in Nairobi’s Starehe area, together with his wife and their six-month old daughter are nursing serious burns after their house was set ablaze on Friday, February 3 night by people he suspects to be his political opponents.

Rexam Ongutu Asila, alias Lord Gym, said his family was sleeping during the time of the tragedy and was woken up by screams from their house girl, Christabelle Emily Andeli, who was calling for help.

Ongutu recalls waking up to the screams only to find the sitting room covered in smoke and with his first instinct was to save his wife and family as the house girl was already outside the house calling for help.

With the chocking smoke in the room, Asila says he slightly lost his consciousness but managed to get to the children’s room, and took them out.

With the help of the neighbours, Asila’s family was evacuated to safety but suffering severe burns.

Judith Adhiambo, Asila’s wife, suffered the most burns during the incident.

Adhiambo, who was in deep pain, told Citizen Digital that thankfully her husband’s friend was passing by and offered to take them to hospital.

The victims were rushed to Kemrif Hospital before being transferred to Neema Hospital where they were administered with first aid and referred to St Francis Hospital.

They were, however, allegedly denied services at Neema Hospital which asked for payments before admitting them.

Hilda Asila, sister to the aspirant, called a friend for assistance and the two rushed them to St Marys Hospital in Lang’ata where they are admitted.

“I pray that may God forgive the person(s) responsible for causing us this much harm, and I also ask for well wishers to help my family as we have nothing but God. My other daughter needs to go back to school but I do not have the capability as of now. Everything in our house was completely destroyed by the fire,” narrated Adhiambo.

Asila was vying for the seat under the Amani National Congress (ANC) party.

However, with all the family’s documents and his political party paper work and documentation being reduced to ashes, he says the tragedy does not stop his dream to be a better leader and make the lives of Lakisami residents better.

Starehe OCPD was, however, unreachable for a comment by the time of going to press.