Kenya power on spot after military officer dies by electrocution

Kenya power employees reconnecting power lines. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

A military officer was on Monday night electrocuted outside his house in Montano area, Kisauni Sub County in Mombasa County.

A police report seen by The Standard revealed that the deceased, Major Said Komora, was having dinner with his family at around 7.45 pm when their house help, who had gone outside to hang a mop on the clothesline, cried for help.

Alarmed, Komora rushed out and found that their house help had been electrocuted. 

"The deceased successfully rescued her but with a slight injury on her right hand...before he unknowingly touched the iron clothing line and was electrocuted," police said. 

Komora, 38, was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The body of the deceased was moved to Jocham Hospital mortuary awaiting a postmortem.

Kenya Power has since issued a statement saying it is probing the incident and will forward the details to investigative officers upon completion. 

The firm said they immediately sent a technical team to the site to isolate and de-energise the affected power line, after receiving the emergency call.

"In the meantime, Kenya Power is carrying out investigations which will be forwarded to the police and other investigative authorities who are also conducting a parallel probe into the incident.” 

On Monday night, reports of a fallen electric pole in the same area trended on social media.

A Twitter user lamented that she had tried getting hold of Kenya Power to contain the situation, only for them to arrive two hours later.

" I've called Kenya Power twice concerning the fallen electric pole. They said they're working on it. I've tweeted...they've said they're escalating and working on it. One person is gone just like that and another is hospitalized,” she tweeted.