Fast-track investigations on the cause of tragic school inferno

Vitale HGM Boarding Primary School dormitory on fire

It is quite tragic that parents and kin have to mourn deaths of eight students who died in a school fire yesterday, even before the ink has dried on a report on school infernos. But as the general public await a preliminary investigative report into yesterday’s fire at Moi Nairobi Girls Secondary School, they will need an assurance on the safety of boarders. The concern by students and parents is justified — there have been far too many fires in primary and secondary schools for comfort.

Even as we console the families bereaved in yesterday’s fire, we must demand speedy investigations into the incident. There are already worrying reports of laxity in the rescue efforts. It has been reported that the first responders took too long to get to the scene of the fire even though the nearest police post is less than two kilometres away. On many occasions, students had to use their own wits to get to safe areas — many of them had to jump from windows because rescuers took too long to arrive. These reports must be looked into.

Under ordinary circumstances, it would be imprudent to speculate about the cause of yesterday’s fire, but the situation in Kenya is not ordinary. Previously copy-cat fires were commonplace, often triggered when arsonists from one school transmitted messages encouraging fellow students to carry our similar attacks to demonstrate solidarity.

Not surprisingly the series of arson attacks prompted the formation of a government task force that was mandated to find ways of forestalling such attacks. There are already those who suspect that arsonists were behind the incident at Moi Nairobi Girls particularly because there was another fire at Sigoti Girls Complex in Nyakach sub-county, Kisumu County Saturday. These two incidents will almost certainly raise the alarm bells in many quarters, coming a few months after a report on the cause of copy-cat school fires was released.

Only by eliminating arson as the cause of yesterday’s fires will many parents begin to sleep easy. It is for this reason that we call for a speedy investigation into these incidences.