NAIROBI — At least 17 children have been burned to death and another 13 are badly injured after a fire at a school dormitory in the Kenyan county of Nyeri, police said on Friday, as parents swarmed the burned-out remains of the building searching for their children.
County police commander Benjamin Rotich told The Post that 152 boys were in the dormitory at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Kieni, but the final death toll was unclear since some parents had arrived to rescue their children and in the chaos it was unclear how many were left in the building. The primary school has pupils up to 14 years of age.
Police spokeswoman Resila Onyango said the cause of the fire is not yet clear. Arson is very common at Kenyan boarding schools as pupils often resort to it as a protest of harsh teachers or conditions. Annual statistics were not immediately available, but a parliamentary paper documented arson attacks at 62 schools in 2018. The report blamed inadequate staffing, exam pressure, inadequate facilities, and lack of counseling and guidance, among other causes.
John Mureuthi Rukwaro, 72, lives three miles from the school and rushed there immediately when he heard sirens around 11 p.m. to try to find his grandson Collins Mureuthi, aged 11. He found a scene of horror.
“It was a big fire, bigger than I have ever seen in my life, it burned the roof and the roof was falling down … The neighbors were screaming, there was screaming all over, people were screaming, calling others to come help put out the fire,” he said. “Villagers were breaking [the roof and windows] and pulling the kids outside, some came out crying, some passing out once they were pulled out, some were choked by the smoke and were not able to breathe.”
“We are still searching for my grandchild,” he said, his voice breaking. “I have so many grandsons, but he is the grandson of my firstborn and named after me, I love him so much.”
Mary Mbula, 44, said she hurried to the school after a neighbor alerted her and was frantically searching for her son Timothy Ndegwa, age 12. When she found him alive, she burst into tears, she said.
Investigations have identified numerous reasons for the arson attacks at Kenyan schools. Government schools are notoriously under-resourced and both public and private schools are often plagued by physical and sexual abuse. A 2023 BBC investigation uncovered cases that included a student flogged into a coma for taking extra food at breakfast; a girl allegedly beaten to death over a hairstyle; and more than 20 deaths attributed to beatings over the past five years.
There can also be immense pressure from families and peers to succeed. In Kenya, where the average monthly salary is around $200, many parents make great sacrifices to send their children to school. Competition for jobs is intense, and those without a high school graduation certificate struggle to find employment.
“The pressure to excel in exams is high … Education in Kenya is a ‘zero sum game’ and exams have an aura of finality — pass exams and you are guaranteed a bright future. This is likely to lead to very high levels of anxiety,” concluded a report by the National Crime Research Center in 2017. The previous year, 130 schools had been set on fire.
The fires are usually started in dormitories at night, when students are most vulnerable. Ten girls were burned to death after a student set dorms on fire at Moi Girls High School in 2017; two students died in a fire at Endarasha Boys Secondary School in 2010; and 67 boys were burned alive at Kyanguli Secondary School in 2001. In 1999, 19 girls were killed in a fire at St Kizito Secondary School Tigania in Meru.
Isaac Muasya, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, wrote a paper on school fires. Among his findings: half of all schools had never carried out fire safety assessment; escape routes were inaccessible in nearly half of schools; and nearly 90 percent of students had never practiced a fire drill.
“It is the lack of proper enforcement and implementation of the policies on schools safety, for example not having metal grills on doors or windows that prevent students from escaping a fire,” he said. “A week ago, a school I know was set on fire. The government does not enforce fire safety policies — or the school management — and there’s an enormous cost to human life.”
