A herder at Nyamakoroto village bordering Menengai forest was on Saturday arrested by forest rangers in connection with fire that razed part of the forest.
Senior forest ranger Alex Amulavu said that the suspect was arrested after investigations were carried out by forest rangers who responded quickly and put off the fire that was spreading fast in the forest.
According to Amulavu forest rangers in charge of fire extinguishing who are always on the lookout for fire outbreaks during dry seasons drove fast at the scene ferrying several tanks of water and put out the fire in a span of 20 minutes before launching investigations into the cause of the fire.
He said that the suspect by the name Peter Kinuthia a middle-aged man who by the time of the fire outbreak was attending to sheep on the forest’s slopes in the village was smoking a cigarette before the fire erupted.
“Our officers were tipped off by members of the public about a young man who had been herding sheep at the scene where the fire started. He was arrested at his family’s homestead in the village and confessed that he had been smoking when the fire started,’’ said Amulavu adding that the suspect was being held at the forest office’s cells and would be handed to police once further investigations are completed.