Eight students arrested over arson attack at a Kilifi school

Eight students at Godoma Boys Secondary School have been arrested in connection with an attempted torching of their school.

They were remanded at Bamba police station pending arraignment in court.

Police arrested the students after receiving information from the school boarding master that a section of students had bought petrol, and it was already in the school compound.

A search at the school led to the recovery of 750 millilitres of petrol in two plastic containers, one in a 500 ml in a solai water bottle with a blue bottle top and 250ml in a one little bottle with a greenish holed bottle top hidden outside one of the dormitories.

The students are said to have smuggled the petrol into the school through a fence and hidden it outside a dormitory.

The recovered petrol was kept as an exhibit. The school was closed indefinitely. The eight suspects are expected to be arraigned in court to face arson-related charges.

This comes at the backdrop of several school fires reported across the county.

On Wednesday this week, boarding students at Khasidi Senior Secondary School in Rabai were sent home after they rioted at night over various grievances, including water shortage, electricity outage and alleged food rationing among the boarding students.

On Tuesday, students at Malindi High School were also released after they burnt one of their classrooms.

At the scene, police recovered charred books and a mattress that had been placed in the ceiling, believed to have been intended to fuel an inferno.

The classroom ceiling was damaged during efforts to extinguish the fire.

Sokoke Senior School Ngala dormitory was also razed down on Wednesday.

The dormitory with a capacity of 68 students had only 43 students at the time of the incident.