Put interests aside to get to root cause of rampant school fires

Given the rate at which cases of arson are rising in schools, the matter has reached crisis proportions. Hardly a day goes by without several reports of schools getting burnt. While in the past it has been easy to associate such acts of unruliness with boys, the sad reality is that girls’ schools have not been spared. Yet the manner in which the fires are occurring points to some coordination, which makes it necessary to get to the root cause of the disturbances.

Head teachers have joined the Kenya National Union of Teachers in claiming that recent changes to the school calendar and the elimination of prayer and visiting days during third term as the cause of the fires. The veracity of these claims has not been established because fires in schools are new. To give some of the worst examples, Bombolulu was burnt in 1998. Kyanguli secondary school was torched in 2001 and Stephjoy in 2015.