Neighbours, friends and relatives on April 23, 2025 at the homestead where nine family members were burnt to death in a suspected arson attack.
On Tuesday night, tragedy hit the sleepy village of Upanda in Siaya County.
A few minutes before midnight, desperate screams for help pierced the still night. The painful cries were emanating from the house of Mr Ouma Opondo, where thick clouds of smoke were billowing.
Mr Sylvester Omondi, a caretaker in a neighbouring homestead, said he was woken up by the pungent smell of petrol. Upon rushing outside to investigate, he saw Opondo’s house engulfed in flames.
Inside the burning house were Opondo, his wife Jecinter Anyango, and the couple’s seven children.
The home of the suspect behind the arson attack that left nine family members dead in Siaya County. Angry villagers stormed the compound and burned down three houses on April 23, 2025.
Mr Omondi said the entire family was lost in the raging flames as villagers, who responded about 10 minutes after he raised the alarm, watched helplessly.
“The neighbours took long to respond to my calls,” a dejected Omondi said yesterday.
But what baffled him most was the presence of a huge padlock hanging on the door of the burning house.
“For a moment I couldn’t understand what was happening. But with the smell of petrol, that is when it struck me that the fire was not an ordinary one, and could have been started by someone with ill intentions,” he told the Nation.
Mr Omondi recalled the diminishing voices of the children, one after the other, as the fire consumed the house and everything inside.
“The voices that were screaming for help began to dim gradually until only the sound of the raging fire could be heard,” he said.
The seven children who died in the inferno, which police are now treating as an arson attack, were aged between six months and 17 years.
When the Nation visited the scene, charred books, mangled metallic boxes and the dying embers of the fire evidenced the tragic night.
Villagers gathered in small groups and speaking in hushed tones, milled around the scene.
The oldest child, 17-year-old Loice Auma, was due to sit her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams later this year at Uluthe Secondary School.
“This is something we have never witnessed in this region. Such cases where an entire family is wiped out—we only hear about them on the radio. We have lost a bright candidate,” remarked Lenah Mwanzia, a parents’ representative.
Charred bodies
Police later arrived and took the charred bodies of the family members to Ambira Sub-County Hospital mortuary.
National Police Spokesperson Michael Muchiri last evening said one suspect had been arrested.
“Early today about 4am, in Sigomere location, nine family members are believed to have been locked in from outside their house before the residence was set on fire. One suspect, 48-year-old Roselyne Atieno Okello, is in custody assisting in the investigations,” said Mr Muchiri.
He added that the police suspect the murders were related to a land dispute.
“Detectives are leaning towards a land dispute involving two families as the motive, but remain open to other possibilities,” said Mr Muchiri.
The home of Ouma Opondo Adalla, who was burnt to death along with his wife and seven children in Upanda village, Sigomre, Ugunja sub-County.
Earlier, Siaya County acting police boss Everline Kemboi said police had commenced investigations and promised to apprehend all those suspected to be behind the arson attack.
Opondo had been battling his cousin, only identified as Owino, in court over some land for the last two decades. After the protracted legal standoff, Mr Omondi said Opondo was awarded ownership of the land.
Mr Omondi said Opondo also obtained a court order directing his cousin to vacate the disputed land.
“The court order had given his cousin up to Thursday (today) to leave the parcel to the rightful owner,” said Mr Omondi, who is privy to the longstanding court case between the two families.
Mr Leonard Ochieng, an uncle of Mr Opondo’s wife, also told the Nation that the family had won the case and what was pending was the eviction.
“My niece told me the man had helped them some years back when one of their uncles died in Nairobi by providing transport to ferry the body back to the village. He was to be compensated with a piece of land,” said Mr Ochieng.
“The conflict was that he extended the boundary and acquired an extra two acres. When Opondo realised this, he went to court, and they have been in and out of court over the same piece of land for years,” he added.
Original boundary
Ms Wylkister Atieno, a retired village elder who said she was one of those who testified in court, said that Owino was found to have tampered with the original boundary.
“I was there when the land was allocated to him. I was a village elder, and my chief then directed me, together with six other village elders, to oversee the division of the land,” she said.
However, after some time, she received a report that the original boundary had been shifted by Owino.
“When Opondo called me, together with other administration officials, I clearly indicated that the piece of land Owino was occupying was not the same one he had been allocated originally,” she added.
Angry villagers who visited the scene after the smoke had fizzled stormed Owino’s home and set three houses on fire.
Area ward representative Andrew Omuende asked the police to bring those behind the heinous act to justice.
“I don’t advocate for people taking matters into their own hands. I call upon the security arm of the government to take over the matter and let the perpetrators face the full force of the law. It is so painful to lose nine people at once,” said Mr Omuende.
