Mbaga Girls closed indefinitely after dormitory fire

Renovation work ongoing at a dormitory that was burnt down at Kirobon Boys, Nakuru County where at least 200 students were affected. (Photo: Mercy Kahenda/Standard)

Siaya: Mbaga Girls High School in Siaya County has been closed indefinitely following two fire outbreaks on Thursday morning and Friday evening.

Principal Mary Lucy Abidha said the Friday evening fire started when the students were attending evening preps.

"The students noticed the fire and raised an alarm. The matter is already being investigated by the police. We have not received any complaints from the students," she said on Friday evening.

According to Siaya OCPD Ancent Kaloki, the school had to be closed indefinitely because a section of students had no accommodation.

The OCPD noted that the fire incident of Friday evening razed down all the properties in the dormitory leaving over 200 students with nowhere to sleep.

"We are yet to establish the cause of the two fire outbreaks but I confidently report that it is not an electricity fault. The dormitories affected were housing form two and three students only," he said.

The OCPD further stated that they have ruled out students' role in the fire outbreak stating that an investigation by his officers show that the students were not even willing to leave school on the day it was closed down.

"We captured that the students were bitter about the school closing and information by my officers after talking to several of them says that there are people who wanted the principal to leave the school but they do not have the support of the students," Kaloki revealed.

He said the school staff will record statements over the incident, adding that there were no deaths or injuries as speculated on social media.

"The form four students were not excited about going home and they kept asking why they have to go home yet their dormitories are not affected. They feel that they will lose a lot but we are working on speedy investigations to ensure they are back to school," added Kaloki.

County director of education Nerea Olick condemned the incident and said that they will not keep the students away from school for a long period.

"We cannot say much about the incident because we are still waiting for investigation reports. We do not expect or anticipate having such incidents anymore because the students are aware of the consequences of such actions. The board met on Saturday over the same and we are working on arrangement of accommodation to ensure they do not stay away," added Olick.

Alego Usonga MP Omondi Muluan appealed to the police to speed their investigations and apprehend those who are committed to bring the school down.

"From the look of things we can easily notice that someone is using lots of efforts negatively because this was a second attempt to burn down the school. There were no casualties as reported on the social media those were just alarmists," added Muluan.