Kenya’s education minister said on Monday that the weekend fire which occurred at a Kenyan high school dormitory leaving nine teenage girls dead was started deliberately.
Fred Matiangi during his announcement of the death toll pointed an accusing finger at arson.
investigation conducted by the police reveals that the fire was not an accident,” Matiangi told a press conference in Nairobi on Monday morning.
“Police have assured us that there are very useful leads in the direction of specific suspects and we will know in due course who these suspects are.”
Initial reports on Saturday reveals that the fire outbreak at a dormitory in Nairobi’s government-run Moi Girls High School at around 2am killed seven female students leaving 10 more injured in the blaze.
But Matiangi said the toll had risen to nine after two more students had succumbed to their injuries.
“We feel saddened that we have lost our children,” Matiangi said.
The school, which has more than 1,000 students, has been shut for the next two weeks and distraught pupils have been sent home to their families.
Last year over 100 schools countrywide were set alight by arsonists in three months.
Then, around 150 students and 10 teachers were charged over the fire, with a variety of motives including revenge from a “cartel” linked to the country’s former exam-setting body, which used to profit handsomely from selling papers and answers before being dismantled.
Other alleged motives were students’ anger over changes to the school calendar as well as Matiangi’s tough education reform agenda.
On Monday, the minister cast suspicion on local quarrels and tribal rivalries.
“We have a school environment where there are arguments about local communities and the head teachers which were foolishly taken to the point of destroying school property and getting into criminal activities to make a point,” Matiangi said.
He further added that some parents are angry that the top job of head teacher goes to those who “don’t come from the area or from the same clan”.
“We cannot resolve a conflict in a school or a conflict on the headship of a school, by burning the school,” he said.
THE GUARDIAN
