Monica Waweru

OUR REF: 34976 DATE : 17th May, 2018. The Claims Manager, Co-operative Insurance Company of Kenya Limited, CIC Plaza, Mara Road, NAIROBI Attn: Mr. Michael Kamau FINAL REPORT FIRE DAMAGE TO A HOUSE AT MILIMANI ESTATE IN KITENGELA, KAJIADO COUNTY ON 20TH APRIL, 2016 CERTIFICATE OF INVESTIGATION/ADJUSTMENT CLAIM NUMBER : 001/052/9/005977/2018/04. POLICY NUMBER : 001/052/9/014891/2013/11. INSURANCE COVER : Public Liability. NAME & ADDRESS OF INSURED : Kenya Power, P.O. Box-, NAIROBI. BUSINESS : Distribution and Transmission of Electricity. DAY, DATE AND TIME OF LOSS : 20th April, 2016. THIRD PARTY DETAILS : Moses Kinyanjui Kimani. SITUATION OF LOSS : Milimani, Kitengela in Kajiado County. NATURE OF LOSS : Fire Damage to a one storied residential house & contents therein. CAUSE OF DAMAGE : Alleged to be an electrical fault from Kenya Power. QUALIFICATION CLAUSE : Investigations were done on April/May2018, about two years after the incident. The burnt house had not been reconstructed, its foundation and a few debris were found on site. Our report is based on interviews conducted, documents provided and observations made. FINDINGS : The fire incident happened on 20th April 2016 in the morning hours. No records or trace of this incident were found at Kenya Power, Kitengela Office against the allegation put forth by the claimant. There was no technical team dispatched from Kenya Power Kitengela Offices to disconnect power in the claimant’s premises as he alleges, it was not established who isolated power during the fire incident. The area transformer was left in healthy status after the incident, no repairs were done. Following our sectional study on the network feeding the claimant and others, we observed appropriate terminations, well done load balancing, continuous earthing done at intervals and moderate sag allowed on the line. LIABILITY : Following our analysis, we give an opinion that policy liability is not attaching in this case. CLAIM AMOUNT : Kshs.6,287,458.00. ADJUSTMENT AMOUNT : See report. Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 2 1. INFORMATION This final reports follows our preliminary report forwarded to your office on 9th May 2018. Some of the information contained in our preliminary report have been retyped for quick referencing and clarifications. The report is addressing the following areas: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Circumstances Findings Possible cause of the fire outbreak Liability Adjustment 2. CIRCUMSTANCES Contacted Persons: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Moses Kinyanjui Kimani (premises owner/claimant). Kimani Kinyanjui (son to the premises owner). Kenya Power Offices Kitengela (Emergency & Customer Services Dpt.). Kitengela Police Station. A few neighbors to the affected premises and who are connected to the same transformer as the claimant. Reportedly, at the time of the incident, the house was under occupancy of his son and their servant. That early morning when the fire occurred, the servant had left the premises. The claimant’s son was woken up by explosive sounds, smoke and unusual noise outside their premises. On checking, he found that their house was on fire. He run out quickly and started seeking for help, neighbors who noted what was happening arrived and assisted him to dress up and keep him away from the fire scene. The fire by then had risen beyond controllable extent. They watched in dismay as the entire structure was consumed by the inferno. Moses was informed about this incident at around 8:00am. He immediately reported to Kenya Power and a team was dispatched to the site, they decoupled the claimant’s service cable from the low voltage network at the terminal pole which is within his premises. Moses later arrived at the scene at around 4:00pm and found some locals at his compound; his house had been extensively damaged by the inferno. He reported the matter to Kenya Police, Kitengela Station and later did a follow up with Kenya Power, Kitengela Offices. 3. FINDINGS Following your instructions, we contacted the claimant and visited the site in Kitengela. A summary of our findings reads as here below; Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 3 3.1 The Premises The premises is situated at Milimani area in Kitengela Town, Kajiado County. Moses owns a piece of land in this area. He had erected a residential one floored house and a store. The area is sparsely populated since it is under development stages. Residents in this area are either tenants or plot owners. The affected building was one storey, the ground floor was of permanent construction whereas the upper floor featured timber construction. The house main frame and walls were made of stone blocks without concrete columns and beams. It had four rooms whose partitioning was done using planed timber. The floor is of concrete slab finished in cement screed. Walls have been plastered internally and gloss painted. The upper floor had a timber made suspended floor and its walls were made using planed hardwood timbers. Roofing was GCI iron sheets done on timber trusses. There was a ceiling made of 3ply boards. This floor had three rooms. Doors were made of steel metal plates and windows glazed metal casement. A timber made staircase was being used to access the upper floor. A barbed wire fence encompasses the plot. Three phase electrical power supply had been terminated at a three phase meter which was mounted on the ground floor. 3.2 Incident occurrence and allegation We confirmed that fire occurred on the said date and caused damage to the house and contents belonging to Moses Kinyanjui Kimani. He alleges that the fire was caused by a power anomaly that originated from Kenya Power meter box. The matter was allegedly reported to Kenya Power, Kitengela Offices and at Kitengela Police Station vide OB No: 49/20/4/16. 3.3 Statements & private investigators report: Kimani Kinyanjui – Claimant’s son He states that he was asleep when he heard unusual sounds and noise, and on coming out to check what was happening, he found a number of persons outside their house, a fire was forming at their meter board which was installed outside their servants’ room (Fed Obachi). The fire eventually spread to engulf the entire house and that nothing was salvaged. He further states that a neighbor, one Mr. Mburu reported the matter to Kenya Power and a team visited the premises and isolated power. The matter was also reported to Kitengela Police Station. Moses Kimani Kinyanjui - Claimant He states that on 20th April 2016 he was in Limuru, at around 8:00am, he received a call from his son and informed that their house meter box had burned and that their house had caught fire. He says that he reported the same to Kenya Power via their emergency number and gave location of his premises and that a team went and disconnected his service cable. He later went to the premises at around 1600hrs and found that the entire house and contents had been burnt. He has been making follow up on the same. Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 4 Fire investigative report prepared by M/s Alpha Safety ServicesWe managed to privately source a copy of fire investigative report prepared by a contracted investigator which we summarize as follows:The report states that the fire was started by an overvoltage out of a short circuit at the meter board. The report recommends that Kenya Power should install cut-out fuse to protect similar incidents. 3.4 Inference: a. Both Kinyanjui and his son, allege that the incident was reported to Kenya Power. Kinyanjui further states that a team arrived and isolated power (though he did not witness), his son was not sure about the same. From our enquiries, we learnt that the incident was not reported at the said date and that Kinyanjui went after two days to make complaint, he couldn’t provide any proof to show that the matter was reported. Further, there was no trace of the same from Kenya Power records and Emergency Control Board. We therefore finds this as a twist by Mr. Kinyanjui with the intention of convincing the Company so that an incident number can be generated. We also learnt that Kenya Power did not dispatch a team to isolate power at the affected premises, the person(s) who disconnected power remains anonymous. b. From the investigative report, the author recommends for installation of cut-outs along the power supply sequence. We were informed from Kenya Power that as a practice, a three phase cut-out fuses had been installed at the metering point. The author further states that the cause of fire was an overvoltage resulting from a short circuit, technically a short circuit will not cause an overvoltage, instead it causes an overcurrent which practically will cause fuses at the transformer to ‘open’, we learnt that fuses at the transformer did not ‘open’ following the incident. As noted elsewhere, the area continued receiving stable power even after the incident. 3.5 Kenya Power Kitengela Offices At Kenya Power Kitengela Offices, we held a comprehensive meeting with Operations & Maintenance Department (O&M) and Customer Services departments and we established the following; o That the matter was not formally reported to Kenya Power, Kitengela Offices and therefore no incident number was issued out in relation to the same. o That there was no technical team from Kenya Power Kitengela Offices which was dispatched to attend to the incident, therefore it is yet to be established who isolated the customer service cable. o That there was no customer in the claimant’s area (Milimani Estate) who raised a complaint of erratic power supply on the dates Mr. Kinyanjui alleges that a power anomaly occurred. Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 5 o The claimant visited Kenya Power Kitengela Offices two days later and said that he was coming to report a fire incident in his premises. He further alleged that his son had made a phone call on the same but no reference number was granted since he didn’t know the procedure. The claimant also allege that there were other two customers connected to the same low voltage power line who were affected by the by the power fault, he was not sure who isolated power following the incident. He was informed that there was no reference to this case and that the company had not dispatched any team to isolate power. o We learnt that the transformer fuses did not isolate power supply after the alleged incident occurrence, the area therefore did not experience a power outage after the alleged power fault. Further we established that no repairs were conducted at the transformer in relation to the alleged power incident. 3.6 Power articulation in the area  The claimant’s premises had been supplied with three phase power at the time of the subject fire. The claimant informed us that he was intending to initiate a farming project and therefore he had applied for three phase power supply.  The low voltage electrical distribution network and transformer supplying the area had not been changed. We therefore conducted a sectional study on the system with the effort of establishing its integrity. From our technical opinion, the line possessed sufficient sag and load balancing seemed to be well done. The transformer appeared not to be overloaded. Continuous earthing had been done at different intervals on the line. The Ohmic measurements were ascertained to be okay. We therefore rule out a possible fault emanating from the low voltage power line.  The customer service which was feeding the claimant’s premises had been isolated by unestablished person(s). It was not known when the isolation was done and for what reasons. The cable was still at site at the time we visited. Seemingly, the cable had burnt from the claimant’s side.  The claimant alleges that there are other two residents whose items got damaged at the time of the reported incident, he says that they did not report to Kenya Power for their own personal reasons. We didn’t meet these customers since we couldn’t be sure if they had been coached by the claimant to present supportive witness on his case. They are immediate neighbors to the claimant. From the few persons (identity not revealed), we established that they were not affected by the alleged power disturbance. 4. EXTENT OF DAMAGE The claimant alleges that the entire house went on fire, nothing was salvaged. He further informed us that his house contents which comprised building materials were all burnt down by the ravaging fire. Only the house foundation was found when we visited. No photos were provided to us in relation to this damage. Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 6 Figure 1: See the 40ftx12ft foundation of the damaged one storied house belonging to Moses Kinyanjui. Figure 2: Photo showing the three phase service cable which was supplying the claimant. Following the incident, the cable was isolated for safety reasons. Figure 3: Photos showing three phase cable which was supplying the claimant, it had been partly burnt from the customers’ side. Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 7 Figure 4: Photo showing fire debris inside a store constructed in the claimant’s premises. Figure 5: A photo showing some stones which the claimant informed us that they were part of the fire debris. 5. ANALYSIS TO THE ALLEGED CAUSE OF LOSS The family suspects that the fire cause was an electrical fault originating from Kenya power side as a result of a short circuit at the meter box. Moses who is the property owner avers that two other persons were reportedly affected around the same time his house got burnt, he states that their electrical items connected to power were damaged and that one of the affected customer, Mr. Mburu is the one who reported the fire incident to Kitengela Kenya Power via a phone call. Mr. Mburu however did not make a claim application for his own reasons. Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 8 During our interviews with a few locals who we met during our second visit, we learnt that the area was receiving good power supply before the incident, during and after the reported incident. As stated above, we also established from Kenya Power, Kitengela Offices that there was no incident which was reported at the time/date of the fire allegedly caused by an electrical fault from Kenya Power side. The claimant’s son informed us that he was asleep and therefore he had not connected any appliance on power. Further, we learnt that there was no reported past complaint on the claimant’s meter. From our observations and enquiries, we learnt that no repairs on the transformer were done after the damage. Based on our technical judgment after getting the circumstances and after our investigative work, we did not find any convincing reason(s) to blame Kenya Power systems as the source of the anomaly that caused the subject fire. Even though the exact cause of the fire could not be established, it is our opinion that the fire could have resulted from the following: a. Electrical fault originating from the claimant’s side. b. Unattended electrical appliance. c. Cooking activities. 6. LEGAL LIABILITY OF INSURED The insured has entered into a contract with the third party to supply him with stable and regular power. In this instance, your insured supplied the third party with stable power. This is in line with the contract signed between the two. Therefore this contract was not breached at the time of this incident and hence insured cannot be held liable for the loss. 7. POLICY COVER/LIABILITY We have in our file a copy of the Public Liability Policy No. 001/052/1/014612/2012/11 providing cover as outlined below:Limits of Company Liability Any one claim (Kshs.) Any one Period of Insurance (Kshs.) Section 1 – Public/Products Liability 750,000,000.00 750,000,000.00 Section 2 – Consequential Loss Geographical Limits - Anywhere in Kenya 500,000,000.00 500,000,000.00 Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 9 Applicable Clause(s) Excess – Section 1 - Nil Section II - Kshs.500,000 Customers property and equipment Property Owners Liability Clause The policy provides to indemnify the insured in respect of accidents in respect of loss of or damage to property not belonging to nor held in trust neither by nor in custody or control of the insured. This cause under the prevailing circumstances is not related to your insured acts and therefore insurer’s liability under this policy does not attach. The adjustment is therefore on a “without prejudice” basis. 8. ADJUSTMENT Through a claim form, two consecutive demand letters and a bills of quantities, the claimant has intimated a claim of Kshs.6,287,458.00 over fire damage to his house which he alleges was caused by a fault originating from Kenya Power side. We have adopted these documents and used the same in our adjustment workings which follows. Our adjustment is based on observations made and information provided. Item description Qty Section 1: House damage Substructures Superstructures Roofing Windows and metal work Doors Finishes External finishes P.C& provisional sums Sub-total 1 Section 2: Contents Electronics Fridge 1 Microwave 1 Home theater 1 43’’ tv 2 Freezer 1 Samsung galaxy S8 1 plus Unit price Claimed value (Kshs) Adjusted Notes value (Kshs) 1,214,-,515.00 1,035,-,-,-,-,-,000.00 5,133,070.00 55,455.00 7,-,-,-,695.00 2,250,000.00 1. 55,-,-,-,695.00 4,-,000.00 Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 10 Samsung galaxy S7 edge Samsung galaxy J7 prime Samsung galaxy J7 Pro Desktop computer Laptop Sub-total 2 Furniture Wall unit Coffee table 5x6 mattress 5x6 bed Office executive chairs Office table Sub-total 2 Clothing Men shoes Men shirts Men trousers Men jackets Ladies dresses Ladies blazers Sub-total 3 Utensils and other items Pressure cooker Cooker Plates Sufurias Mugs/cups Sub-total 4 Grand Totals 1 51,000.00 1 22,000.00 1 28,-,-,-,129.00 1 1 3 3 - - 10,-,-,-,895.00 3,-,785.00 3,395.00 2,150.00 1,400.00 4,-,- 273,652.00 2. 23,-,-,-,-,-,-,819.00 94,728.00 2. 10,-,-,-,-,-,-,945.00 57,578.00 2. 53,995.00 4,500.00 9,-,-,-,495.00 6,287,458.00 35,-,711,756.00 Adjustment Notes: The values claimed on the damaged items are estimates given by the claimant. In our adjustment, we have equally applied estimations based on the descriptive details given to us by the claimant. 1. House Damage: - the damaged house was one storey and measured approximately 500sqft. The main frame and walls of the ground floor was of made using masonry stone blocks. The floor is of concrete slab finished in cement screed. It had four rooms whose partitioning was done using planed timber. Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 11 The upper floor had a timber made suspended floor and its walls were made using planed hardwood timbers. Roofing was GCI iron sheets done on timber trusses. There was a ceiling made of 3ply boards. This floor had three rooms. Doors were made of steel metal plates and windows glazed metal casement. A timber made staircase was being used to access the upper floor. Following consultations with craftsmen conversant with building works, we were informed that such a structure can be realized by a sum approximated to Kshs.2,500,000.00. We adopted this value and deducted 10% for possible salvage on metal work. 2. Contents:- There was no debris found on site to evidence the claimed damage on contents, no photos were presented to us on the same. We have allocated 40% of the claimed amount as loss estimate so as to cater for any exaggerations and depreciations. 9. CLAIM SETTLEMENT On “Without Prejudice Basis”, the claim has been adjusted to Kshs.2,711,756.00. No settlement is recommended. 10. CONCLUSION As this concludes our involvement in this matter, we enclose a note of our fee for your settlement. PREPARED BY: ADJUSTMENT & VALUATION UNIT SAFETY SURVEYORS LIMITED AUTHORIZED SIGNATORY: JMT/cao Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 12 ENCLOSURES 1. Copy of statement prepared by Kimani Kinyanjui; marked ‘A1-2’. 2. Copies of statements sourced from Kitengela Police Station prepared by Kimani Kinyanjui and Moses Kimani; marked ‘B1-5’. 3. Copy of a privately sourced investigative report prepared by a private fire investigator hired by Moses Kimani; marked ‘C1-9’. 4. Copy of claim form and follow up letters for the claimant; marked ‘D1-4’. 5. Copy of the police abstract; marked ‘E’. 6. Copy of the claimants’ Bills of Quantities; marked ‘F1-18’. 7. Copy of a list of the damaged contents; marked ‘G1-3’. 8. Copies of replacement quotation invoices for the damaged items; marked ‘H1-5’. Kenya Power-Fire damage to a house for Moses Kinyanjui in Kitengela. Page 13