Seven Kenyan schoolgirls die in dormitory
blaze: government
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[September 02, 2017]
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Seven Kenyan
teenage schoolgirls died and 10 more were hospitalized after a fire
engulfed their boarding school dormitory in Nairobi early on Saturday
morning, a government official said.
The cause of the fire was not known, and the government ordered Moi
Girls School closed for two weeks while it investigated, education
minister Fred Matiangi told reporters when he visited the school.
"A fire broke out at the school at 2:00am in the morning in one of the
dormitories," said Matiangi. He said the school, which has nearly 1,200
students, is "one of our top schools in the country and... (one) that we
are very proud of."
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Fires have in the past claimed the lives of dozens of Kenyan boarding
school students. In 2001, 58 schoolboys were killed in a dormitory fire
at Kyanguli Secondary School outside Nairobi. In 2012, eight students
were killed at a school in Homa Bay County in western Kenya.
Lax safety standards and poor emergency procedures have been blamed for
some past fires at schools and for other tragedies such as the collapse
of a residential building in Nairobi in May that killed nearly 50
people.
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![](../images/090217pics/news_o29.jpg)
Investigators stand inside a cordon line following a fire that burnt
down one dormitory of Moi Girls school in Nairobi, Kenya September
2, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner
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The Kenyan police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request
for comment on Saturday morning.
A shaken 16-year-old schoolgirl, Daniella Maina, told Reuters: "We
were sleeping and a girl woke us up and said that our hostel was
burning. We were helped to safety by some teachers."
(Reporting by Maggie Fick; Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo
and Baz Rather; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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