Kenya tragedy: 17 children killed in primary school fire
- September 7, 2024
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Kenyan President William Ruto declared three days of national mourning on Friday for the deceased death of at least 17 children in this fire one elementary from the
Kenyan President William Ruto declared three days of national mourning on Friday for the deceased death of at least 17 children in this fire one elementary from the center Kenya.
The fire broke out while most of the students were asleep and devastated the Hillside Endarasha Academy Boys Boarding School in Kieni, Nyeri County, leaving behind 27 wounded was admitted to hospital and an unknown number of children were “missing.”
“Our hearts are broken by the devastating news of the tragic death of 17 children” aged “9 to 13 years,” Ruto lamented in a presidential statement that declared a national mourning period from Monday to Wednesday next week, with Kenyan and East African Community (EAC) flags flown at half-mast on public buildings.
The Kenyan president expressed his “deepest condolences” to the relatives of the victims and solidarity with “those young people who survived the flames but who will now be left with physical and psychological scars for life.”
“I am prepared to answer the difficult questions that have been asked, such as how this tragedy could have happened and why the answer did not come in time; fully, frankly and without fear or favouritism,” Ruto said.
Sixteen children suffered “unrecognizable” burns and another died on the way to hospital, National Police Service spokeswoman Resila Onyango said in statements published by local media.
Parents, teachers and police Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) officers turned out to the school, which has just over 800 pupils, on Friday morning to learn about the tragedy.
The ill-fated ward was designed for 156 beds, but the number of students present at the time of the tragedy is not specified.
Similarly, Kenyan Vice President Rigathi Gachagua, who visited the scene of the accident, said local media had reported that 86 students had been found and asked the public not to speculate on the death toll or the cause of the fire.
“The term is ‘location unknown’. It does not mean they died in the incident overnight,” he said.
The tragedy recalled other fires that have claimed lives in Kenyan schools in the past, such as the 2001 disaster at the Kyanguli Secondary School in Machakos County, bordering Nairobi.
In that fire, deliberately started by two students, 67 students aged 15 to 19 died.
Another fire broke out in 1998 at the Bombolulu Girls’ Secondary School boarding school in Kwale (south) district, killing 26 girls. (EFE)
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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