Nairobi: In a tragic incident, a fire broke out in central Kenya killed at least 17 students, according to a police spokesperson on Friday, as local media reports claimed they had been burnt beyond recognition. Resila Onyango said 14 other students were seriously injured in the blaze, raising the possibility of the death toll rising.
"We have lost 17 pupils in the fire incident while 14 are injured ...," Onyango told Reuters by telephone. "Our team is at the scene at the scene at the moment." Kenya's Citizen Television said the deceased students at the Hillside Endarasha Primary in Nyeri county were burnt beyond recognition in the inferno, the cause of which is yet to be determined.
Nyeri County Commissioner Pius Murugu and the education ministry reported that the dormitory that caught fire housed more than 150 boys. Since most of the buildings are built with wood planks, the fire spread very fast. The school, which has 824 students, is located in the country's central highlands, 200 km north of the capital, Nairobi, where wooden structures are common.
President William Ruto called the news “devastating” and instructed relevant authorities to thoroughly investigate the accident. His deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, urged school administrators to ensure that safety guidelines recommended by the education ministry for boarding schools are being followed.
A team of police officers led by Deputy Director of CID John Onyango and Director of Homicide Martin Nyuguto has been deployed to the school to commence investigations into the incident. One of the dormitories housing the students caught fire, killing the students. There are fears that more bodies are likely to be recovered once the scene is fully processed, according to The Star.
The Kenya Red Cross said it is providing psychosocial support services to the pupils, teachers and affected families, and has set up a tracing desk at the school, according to BBC. It is important to mention that school fires are relatively common in Kenyan boarding schools.
In September 2017, at least 10 students were killed in a fire at a girls' boarding school in the capital Nairobi, for which authorities blamed an arson attack. The Kenya Red Cross said on its Twitter feed there had been three other school fires reported in different parts of the country on the same day.
At least 67 students died in Machakos County, south-east of Nairobi, in the deadliest Kenyan school arson that took place more than 20 years ago. Around 350 Kenyan schools caught fire from 2015 to 2016, according to the government. This compared, according to one academic source, with 76 fires from 2011 to 2013. It was not clear how many fires were deliberate. Furthermore, Kenya frequently sees deadly protests, where angered students deliberately set their school buildings on fire.
(with agency input)
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