In a desolate room on the edge of the Sinai shanties that were swept away by the killer fire on Monday, Consolata Wachira lay writhing in pain.
His memory kept shifting between his escape from the tragedy in which more than 100 neighbours, many known to him, died, and the reality that his father and pastor, Francis Wachira Mucheke, 46, was not as lucky to survive the horror.
From his room, Mr Wachira, 18, could only listen to the songs coming from their living room, sang by five clergymen and members of his father’s congregation at Destiny of Holyness Church, Sinai, that sits right next to the fire scene. It may have been spared by God Himself.
Mr Wachira limped to his room less than 24 hours after he sustained what looked like serious burns – sad but happy at the same time.
“I am alive because of my legs,” said the 18-year old.
“But my dad’s legs let him down.”
He is believed to have died in the fire just a day after he energetically preached about how God would bring fire to his sinners when He returns.
At the service, where church members spoke of his immense preaching ability and gift of the garb, his wife, Pastor Anne Wachira, was absent. She was out trying against all odds to find him.
“We have gone to all hospitals but we couldn’t find him either admitted or even in the mortuary,” said their oldest daughter Mary Wachira.
She said the family had left everything to God, the one he had spent all his life serving.
The daughter explained that the pastor and his son were at the spot where residents were scooping oil.
But once the fire broke out, the son took off and escaped from the raging inferno, but his dad, Pastor Mucheke, wasn’t so lucky.
Wachiara, however, received facial and body injuries and was taken to Kenyatta National Hospital for treament. He said he had been discharged and sent home where he has is now recovering in a room adjacent to the killer scene.
Mr Wachira gets little attention from any medics despite his swollen body and face.
“I will be well,” he said with determination and a tinge of frustration.
Although it was clear his father may have died in the fire, Ms Macharia, 20, said she hoped for a miracle.
“Maybe he is admitted in a private hospital where we have not been to,” she said amid the constant ringing of her mobile phone. Most callers are relatives and friends inquiring about her father’s whereabouts.
And then her own tears fell, uncontrollably. Her cousin, Samson Mureithi occasionally wipes them off.
He had travelled from his rural home in Nyandarua when her heard that her father could not be found.
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