Another school fire hours after Matiang’i visit

The dormitory of another secondary school in Kisii County went up in flames on Monday night, hours after Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i visited the institution.
Property worth millions of shillings at Nyamache High School was reduced to ashes in the incident, the second to have befallen the institution this month.

The first fire was on June 2. Two dormitories were razed by the fire that also left 150 students without sleeping quarters.

In Monday’s incident, 60 students were affected and were forced to use the main hall as a temporary dormitory.

On Tuesday, Kisii County commander Agnes Mudambi said authorities were yet to establish the cause of the fire.

“We have in the meantime launched investigations into the incident,” she told the Daily Nation on Tuesday.

According to school captain Obadiah David, the fire broke out while students were in class for their night studies.

When the Nation team arrived at the school on Monday, a number of students were busy trying to put out the fire in the dormitory christened Manga, with others trying to salvage the little they could.

Bobasi MP Stephen Manoti asked the police to be swift in their investigations. “This is the second time we are witnessing a fire in this school. We must get to the bottom of this issue fast,” said Mr Manoti.

The school had hosted the CS earlier in the day for an education day and later a fundraiser in aid of the reconstruction of the two dormitories burned down previously. Dignitaries pledged Sh2 million towards the reconstruction.

The CS, who was accompanied by Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang and Teachers Service Commission chief executive officer Nancy Macharia, said parents would bear the burden of the damage by students.

“We will not use State resources to fund thuggery,” Dr Matiang’i said, shortly after assessing the damage at Itierio Boys High School, where seven dormitories were razed in a protest by students against the administration’s decision to prohibit them from watching a football match.

Meanwhile, police sent samples of burnt materials to the government chemist for analysis as efforts to unravel the cause of the fire at Itierio Boys intensified.

INFLAMMABLE SUBSTANCES

Kisii South police boss David Mburukwa said: “The samples will be analysed to determine whether the culprits used flammable substances.”
Mr Mburukwa said no one had been arrested in connection with the fire, but police were investigating “all possible angles, including the involvement of individuals outside the school”.

The school’s principal, Mr Andrew Otara, said the institution’s reconstruction efforts had already begun.

And on Tuesday, Dr Matiang’i said political leaders had set a bad example to students, contributing to the recent wave of destruction of property in schools.

The CS also said students should be taught alternative methods of communicating their grievances.

Recent protests against the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission have modelled to future generations that “violence is the way to get things done” he told Nation.

“If public leaders break down gates of institutions and encourage their supporters to destroy supermarkets and burn matatus, what will our children learn? We must teach our children to be responsible by example,” he said.

But the CS was quick to point out that the whole society was to blame for the recent episodes of unrest.

He also said many school heads still managed their schools like “boot camps”. “How on earth do you tell students to wake up at 4am and they don’t return to dormitories till 9pm? What kind of thinking is that? Let us exercise some sort of accommodation,” said a visibly agitated Matiang’i.

Reporting by Aggrey Omboki, Nyaboga Kiage and Ngare Kariuki