Four schools destroyed in fresh wave of student unrest

A dormitory in Dr Aggrey National School in Taita Taveta County on fire. [Renson Mwanyamwezi, Standard] 

A wave of student unrest has swept parts of the Coast, where property of unknown value has been razed in four schools in Taita Taveta and Kilifi counties.

On Sunday, fire burnt down a dormitory at Jilore Senior School in Kwale County and St Mary’s Boys High School in Taita Taveta County. This comes days after another dormitory at Dr Aggrey Boys National School in Wundanyi, Taita Taveta, was razed by three hooded individuals.

At Jillore in Kilifi, the fire reduced four beds, six mattresses, two metallic boxes, bedding, students’ clothes and uniforms, books and stationery to ashes.

Twenty-six students in the dormitory at the time of the incident were all rescued safely. The cause of the fire is still unknown. A police report indicates that at the time of the incident, the school had no electricity due to pending bills and had no CCTV installation.

Further, the school has no title deed, and there are pending land ownership disputes with adjacent villagers. “The walls of the affected cube showed signs of burning, as evidenced by black soot,” read part of the police statement.

This is the second school in Kilifi to be burnt in barely a day. On Saturday, a staffroom at Mapimo Comprehensive Junior Day in Magarini sub-county was razed, destroying two computers, one office chair, two wood tables, two fire extinguisher containers, several textbooks and exercise books, a few lab materials, pangas and jembes and two knapsack sprayers.

At St Mary’s Boys High School, reports indicate students set the dormitory on fire after the administration denied them a chance to watch an English Premier League match between Manchester United FC and Liverpool FC.

Taita Taveta County Police Commander Jonathan Koech said investigations into the fire incident had been launched. “We are still investigating the fire incident, but the information we have now is that students wanted to steal an examination, and the administration refused. Police and education officials are on the ground trying to get to the bottom of the fire,” he said.

Unknown people entered Dr Aggrey National School on Wednesday night and razed a dormitory. Sources said three hooded suspected arsonists are reported to have gained entry into the school and touched the dormitory housing 180 students, according to the closed-circuit television (CCTV) images.

The CCTV images, according to teachers who accessed them, showed the suspects covered themselves with blankets to gain entry into the school through the porous fence to commit the arson attack that had baffled the county security team.