A fire that tore through a primary school dormitory in central Kenya left at least 17 young boys dead and 70 missing, according to officials on Friday. The family of the victims were upset and in urgent need of word on their loved ones.
Over 150 boys were asleep when the fire at Nyeri County’s Hillside Endarasha Academy started at around midnight.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua informed reporters on the scene, “We still have 70 kids that are unaccounted for — that does not mean they are perished or they are injured… the word is that they are unaccounted for,” and she said that 27 of the children were hospitalized.
Police said earlier that 17 children had been confirmed dead.
“The bodies recovered at the scene were burnt beyond recognition,” national police spokesperson Resila Onyango told AFP.
But Gachagua said the number of dead was not verified, urging relatives and members of the community to help in tracing the missing.
He described the scene as “gory” and said painstaking investigative work using DNA would be required to help identify the victims.
The government said the dormitory housed boys between grades four to eight, meaning the victims were aged between nine and 12 or 13.
Tensions were rising among families gathered at the school for news, and many broke down into wailing and tears after officials took them to see the charred bodies in the destroyed dorm.
“Please look for my kid. He can’t be dead. I want my child,” one woman said in distress as she left the school.
‘Panic mode’
The cause of the inferno was not yet known but Kenya’s National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated the dorm was “overcrowded, in violation of safety standards” and called for an immediate inquiry.
“We parents are in panic mode,” said Timothy Kinuthia, who has been hunting for news of his 13-year-old boy.
“We have been here since 5:00 am and we have been told nothing.”
AFP footage showed the blackened shell of the dormitory, with its corrugated iron roof completely collapsed.
The destroyed building was sealed off by yellow police tape, with officers stationed at all access points.
The school, which reportedly catered to some 800 children, is located in a semi-rural area around 170 kilometres (100 miles) north of the capital Nairobi.
An AFP journalist saw survivors wrapped in blue blankets against the cold, being loaded into school buses.
Alice Wanjiku said she had come from Nairobi to search for her orphaned nephew.
“We have not heard anything since morning. I will camp here until I find our baby. He is the joy of our family and I hope to find him.”
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Source: NDTV
