The students in the school were burned beyond recognition, and it was indicated that at least 17 students were killed in the fire incident that occurred in one of the dormitories of the Hillside Endarasha Primary School. It is common to find out that many boarding schools in Kenya have school fire incidences.
Nairobi: A fire incident in central Kenya that reportedly happened led to the death of at least 17 students; this was revealed by a police officer on Friday, while other reports from local newspapers said the students were burned beyond recognition. Resila Onyango said 14 other students were seriously injured in the blaze; this means that the death toll might rise.
”We have lost 17 pupils in the fire incident while 14 are injured.,” Onyango said to Reuters through the telephone. “Our team is at the scene at the moment.“ Kenya’s Citizen Television reported that the students who died were burned beyond recognition in Hillside Endarasha Primary in Nyeri County, and the source of the fire was yet to be established.
Police investigators headed by the Deputy Director of CID John and Director of Homicide Martin have been dispatched to the school to carry out an investigation on the act. Some of the dormitories that accommodated the students burned down, and the students were killed. As much as the police tried to put on a brave face, Kenyan media, quoting The Star, reported what it described as fears that more bodies would probably be dug out from the scene once it had been totally cleared.
The Kenya Red Cross has stated that it is offering support in the form of psychosocial support to the pupils, teachers, and families that were affected and has opened a tracing center for the affected school, according to the BBC. Needless to emphasize that school fires are rather frequent in Kenyan boarding schools.
In September last year, at least 10 girls were burned to death in a fire at a girls’ boarding school in the capital Nairobi, which authorities said was an arson attack. The Kenya Red Cross, in a statement on its official Twitter handle, said three other school fires were reported in different parts of the same day.
More than 67 students were burned to death in Machakos County, south-east of Nairobi, in what is known to be the worst school fire tragedy in Kenya that occurred over two decades ago. Speaking of self-abuse, the Kenyan government recently estimated that about 350 school fires happened within the period of 2015 and 2016. This was said to be the case by one academic source, pointing to the fact that in the years 2011 and 2013, this figure stood at 76. There was no way of telling just how many of these fires were set intentionally. Also, killing continues to be a common action in Kenya’s protests, where angry students have, for example, set their school structures on fire.
