|
Citizen Television said the fire had burnt the victims beyond
recognition. Its footage from the scene showed collapsed
iron-sheet roofing and charred metal storage boxes on top of
double-decker beds in the dormitory.
The blaze occurred at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri, a
primary boarding school for young students.
"We have lost 17 pupils in the fire incident while 14 are
injured," police spokesperson Resila Onyango said. "Our team is
at the scene at the moment."
Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said the boys were in
grades 4 to 8, putting their ages at about 9 to 13-years-old. He
said in a statement the dormitory housed 156 students.
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
President William Ruto said he had told authorities to
investigate what he called the "horrific incident" and said
those responsible would be held to account.
Authorities have cordoned off the school, the Kenya Red Cross
said on X. Calls by Reuters to the school's main phone line went
unanswered.
Kenya has a history of school fires, many of which have turned
out to be arson.
Nine students were killed in Sept 2017 in a fire at a school in
the capital Nairobi that the government attributed to arson.
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.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa, Humphrey Malalo and Sonia Rao;
Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Christina Fincher and Angus
MacSwan)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All
rights reserved.]
Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
