The Kenyan authorities on Friday arrested eight college students on the suspicion of setting fire to a dormitory at a women boarding faculty the day earlier than, killing 16 schoolmates and injuring 79 others.
The nation’s prison investigations unit mentioned in a statement on X that the eight college students, all women, had been “individuals of curiosity” within the planning and execution of the suspected arson assault. They may very well be charged in courtroom as quickly as Tuesday, mentioned Julius Ogamba, the Kenyan training minister.
As a part of the inquiry, investigators mentioned that they had performed interviews and reviewed CCTV footage, and had been nonetheless analyzing proof from the fireplace. The motive was not clear.
The blaze broke out shortly earlier than 1 a.m. Thursday native time on the Utumishi Ladies Academy within the city of Gilgil and was contained by 3 a.m., in keeping with Mr. Ogamba. The highschool is run by Kenya’s police. Gilgil is about 75 miles northwest of the capital, Nairobi.
The catastrophe renewed concern about hearth security within the nation’s faculties. A 2020 authorities audit discovered that almost all faculties in Kenya had been ill-prepared for such emergencies. Many lacked working extinguishers and alarms regardless of an in depth nationwide security handbook revealed in 2008, a yr with a wave of faculty fires.
A 2024 hearth at an elementary faculty killed 21 youngsters in a dormitory housing greater than 300 college students. Kenya’s deadliest such blaze was in 2001, when college students set hearth to a highschool in Machakos, southeast of Nairobi, killing 67 college students.
Mr. Ogamba mentioned on Friday that two academics who had reportedly been knowledgeable of the most recent suspected arson would face disciplinary motion, and that the college’s administration had been dissolved for failing to implement security requirements.
“There was congestion within the dormitory, and one exit door was locked, opposite to the prescribed security necessities,” Mr. Ogamba mentioned.
Dad and mom interviewed on the scene mentioned that youngsters had needed to bounce out of home windows, sustaining head and different accidents. Seven college students who had been admitted to a close-by hospital had been airlifted to Kenyatta Nationwide Hospital in Nairobi, the nation’s essential medical facility, for specialised care, Mr. Ogamba mentioned.
On Friday, mother and father complained of getting little info from the authorities. A day earlier, some had demanded to know the whereabouts of their youngsters.
Kenya’s prison investigations unit mentioned that autopsies had been underway at a close-by hospital, the place the our bodies can be recognized.
