Fire guts down dormitories at Onjiko Boys Secondary School in Kisumu

A student at Onjiko High School in Kisumu county tries to salvage his properties after one of their dormitory went down on fire on October 20 2016. Two dormitories housing 150 students were razed down in the incident whose cause was yet to be established. (COLLINS ODUOR)

Scores of students spent the night in the cold after their dormitories went up in flames on Wednesday night.

Two dormitories housing 150 students at Onjiko Boys Secondary School in Kisumu were razed as students attended evening preps.

Firefighters from Kisumu arrived too late to save the buildings whose roofs caved in during the inferno.

No one was injured in the incident.

School principal Alfred Ochiel ruled out an electrical fault, saying his administration was following leads that a group of students may have started the fire.

"It was evidently an arson attack. The dormitories are nearly 100 metres apart," he said.

Mr Ochiel said the school had not unearthed the motive behind the arson. The students, he said, had calmly done their end of term examinations, which were due to end yesterday, and were expected to break for holidays next week.

In March this year, the students went on the rampage twice, torching a hostel and destroying school property, allegedly because the administration had refused to help them get Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam questions.