After successfully rescuing two other children from a burning house, a six-year-old boy is receiving plaudits from all over the world.
When a fire broke out in their Machakos house while their mother was away, Richard Kitonga valiantly rescued his two nieces, ages four and two.
His neighbors were moved by his succinctness and joined forces to help the family rebuild a portion of the fire-damaged home.
Timothy Kilonzo, a member of the committee in charge of collecting donations, observed that the team has raised Ksh350,000 since the house burned down a week ago and is still striving to make up the Ksh700,000 shortfall.
“We had one small boy who we looked up to as a hero and later we sat we the committee and sat with the family and contributions began.
“To this date, we have raised close to Ksh350,000 and we are short of a budget of Ksh700,000. The construction began immediately,” stated Kilonzo.
The incident happened not long after Kitonga’s widowed mother, Damaris Makau, left the three kids and went to the adjacent store.
“I left with my son to go to the shop to buy him a sweet. When we got to the shop, we found it closed. He got back into the compound and I locked it,” she stated.
When Kitonga got home, he discovered the house was on fire. His first thought was to get his nieces into a safe spot so he could help them get out of the compound over a barbed wire fence.
The mother reported that upon her return, she saw her living room engulfed in flames but the kids were nowhere to be seen.
She continued, “The fire was in the sitting room and I could not see the children but one of the neighbours told me they were at her house.”
Kitonga said that before they went in search of her mother, she assisted them in fleeing for safety. He brought them to the home of a neighbor.
“I found the children outside and saw a huge fire. I asked them to get out through the fence to go look for mum,” Kitonga said.
