School shut after fire razes four dormitories

A parent at Bondeka Girls Secondary School in Nyamira County assesses damage caused by fire that gutted a dormitory. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

Some 240 students of Ainabkoi Secondary School in Uasin Gishu County were forced to go home after fire razed four dormitories and one laboratory at the weekend.

Speaking to The Standard yesterday, school principal James Angase said students lost most of their belongings and it was impossible to keep them in school.

He said no student was injured during the inferno. Eldoret East OCPD Robert Omanga confirmed the incident.

Mr Angase said the fire broke out when the students were in their classes for evening preps.

“We tried to put off the fire with the help of community members, but it was impossible because we did not have enough water at the institution,” he said.

Robert Ngisirei, a school board member, called on the police to expedite investigations into the fire incident .

And 50 students of Bondeka Girls in Nyamira spent Sunday night in the cold after fire burnt their dormitory.

According to the school Principal Lucy Annam, the fire broke out at around 10pm when students were conducting prayers in the school hall after evening studies.

The students lost all their belongings, but no one was injured in the incident.

Education officials, National Government Constituency Fund representatives and parents were engaged in crisis meeting for the better part of yesterday.

A contingent of security personnel was also dispatched to the school to investigate the cause of the inferno.

Nyamira North Sub-county Director of Education Evans Ogamba said the fire caused damage estimated at Sh2.7 million.

Elsewhere, the police have launched investigations into an incident in which a woman and her two children were burnt to death in their house in Nyatike.

[Silah Koskei, Stanley Ongwae and Caleb Kingwara]