At least 18 boys have been killed and 27 more were taken to hospital after a fire raged through the dormitory of a boarding school in central Kenya in the early hours of Friday.
Kenya’s vice-president, Rigathi Gachagua, gave the toll at the scene at the Hillside Endarasha academy, a primary school in the town of Endarasha, where the fire broke out at about midnight engulfing rooms where more than 150 children were sleeping.
He said a further 70 children remained unaccounted for, although he added that some may have been taken home by their parents in the night.
The Nyeri county commissioner, Pius Murugu, and the education ministry reported that the dormitory that caught fire housed more than 150 boys between the ages of 10 and 14.
A national police spokesperson said: “The bodies recovered at the scene were burned beyond recognition. More bodies are likely to be recovered once the scene is fully processed.”
The interior minister, Kithure Kindiki, said some children sought shelter at houses neighbouring the school. “There are some children who are alive and well, but they are of course traumatised and they are in the hands of those who gave them refuge last night,” he said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Kenya’s National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated that the dormitory was “overcrowded, in violation of safety standards” and called for an immediate inquiry.
Kenya’s president, William Ruto, said the news of the fire was “devastating” and promised that anyone found responsible would be held to account
Many families anxiously waited at the school gates to be reunited with their children. “There has been very little information. They are telling us some children escaped but we are not being told to where,” said Francis Wachira, 33, who has a daughter at the school. “The more I stay here the more my hope in finding the child is fading.”
Timothy Kinuthia, who was seeking news of his 13-year-old boy, told Agence France-Presse: “We parents are in panic mode. We have been here since 5am and we have been told nothing.”
Kenya has a history of school fires, many of which have turned out to be arson. In September 2017 nine students were killed in a fire at a school in the capital, Nairobi, which the government attributed to arson.
In 2001, 58 schoolboys were killed in a dormitory fire at Kyanguli secondary school outside Nairobi. In 2012, eight students were killed at a school in Homa Bay county in western Kenya.
A 2022 report by the country’s auditor general said most public secondary schools were ill-prepared to deal with fire disasters.
Gachagua asked schools to enforce safety measures as outlined by the education ministry and other agencies in order to prevent fires.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Source: theguardian.com
