Seven St Patrick's Iten students arrested after fire guts dormitory

Seven Students have been arrested amid convening of an abrupt Board of Management meeting to discuss possibility of closing down a national school that was torched in Elgeyo-Marakwet County.

A dormitory at St Patrick’s Iten Boys’ National school went up in flames on Tuesday night.

School Principal Wilson Yego on Wednesday morning told the Nation that there was a possibility to sent the students home.

“We are meeting with the Board today to discuss what to do. We might end up closing down,” said the Principal.

Members of the clergy were also expected to attend the meeting at the Catholic-sponsored school.

Nothing was salvaged in the inferno that reduced students’ belongings to ashes as police and the school management commenced investigations into the incident.

The school head said that the learning institution is the first national school to be set ablaze since a wave of arson incidents arose countrywide.

"It is so unfortunate that this has happened in our school. We least expected that it could happen," said the principal.

The Principal indicated that he was from Nairobi to engage stakeholders on establishment of a new dormitory to cater for the increasing student population which currently stands at over 900.

“Dorm 10 that went up in flames at 7:30pm was a donation by a well-wisher in the early 1980s and it was a love for many because it had cubicles,” added Mr Yego.

County Police Commander Shariff Abdalla confirmed the arrests saying: “We have in custody seven boys and they are helping us with investigations.”

Leaders in the County however petitioned Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to close schools and fix the spate of arson witnessed across the country.

"I am asking the Education CS to consider closing all schools so that these temperatures can go down because recently, we have heard of several fires in schools and the situation seems to be getting out of hand," said Mr Kochei.

County Commissioner Fredrick Ndambuki, confirmed that the administration has taken over security of the school until normalcy returns.

"I want to promise the entire school administration and the community that we are going to do thorough investigations and make our findings public," said Ndambuki.

County Director of Education Ms Sabina Aroni said preliminary investigations show it is an arson attack, saying St Patrick’s Iten is the second school in the region to be set on fire.

“We don’t know to who we should attribute the cause of this incident but we are promising to relay our findings to the public within no time,” said Aroni.