1 week Ago
Distraught parents gathered on Monday at a hospital in central Kenya for DNA tests to identify the victims of a deadly school dormitory fire that claimed the lives of 21 boys. Kenya's government declared three days of mourning amid public anger over continued safety lapses and repeated fires in the country's schools. The children perished after flames engulfed their dormitory at the Hillside Endarasha Academy, a boarding school in the central Nyeri county, as they were sleeping on Thursday night.
Nineteen bodies were found in the charred ruins of the building, while another two died in hospital. But 17 were still unaccounted for, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said on Saturday. Police said the victims in the dormitory, aged nine to 13, were burnt beyond recognition.
On Monday, local media showed images of parents waiting outside Naromoru hospital, a medical facility an hour's drive from the school. "The forensic exercise of identifying the bodies will start on Monday because that's the only way they can be identified," Nyeri County Commissioner Pius Murigu told AFP on Sunday. President William Ruto has described the incident as an "unfathomable tragedy".
Flags were to be flown at half-mast on all Kenyan public buildings, military bases and embassies from Monday to Wednesday. Ruto has ordered a full investigation. "This incident compels us to ensure accountability in all schools across the country and to take every action we can to safeguard the lives of our school-going children," he said on Friday.
The Kenya Red Cross has been offering psychological counselling to traumatised children and relatives, setting up white tents in fields outside the school gates. Thursday's inferno has highlighted the issue of safety at schools in Kenya, after numerous similar incidents over the years, many of them deadly..
