A FIRE ripped through the dormitory of a boarding school in central Kenya, killing 17 boys who were sleeping and injuring 14 others, police and government officials said.
The death toll could rise, police warned on Friday, following the disaster at Hillside Endarasha Primary School in Nyeri county, as the survivors are being treated in numerous hospitals.
Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said the boys were in grades 4 to 8, putting their ages at about nine to 13 years. The dormitory housed 156 boys.
Vice President Rigathi Gachagua said 70 pupils remained unaccounted for, although he added that some may have been taken home by their parents in the night.
The cause of the fire on Thursday night was being investigated, police spokeswoman Resila Onyango said, adding that “necessary action” would be taken.
“The bodies recovered at the scene were burnt beyond recognition,” Onyango told the AFP news agency.
The primary boarding school has a total of 824 students – 402 boys and 422 girls, the Ministry of Education said in a statement on social media platform X.
Of them, 156 boys and 160 girls are boarders while the rest are day scholars.
The school is located about 170km (106 miles) north of the capital, Nairobi.
“All relevant government agencies have been deployed … [to] seek the truth on what caused the fire leading to the loss and injury of so many young souls,” Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said after visiting the school.
“The government assures full accountability for all whose action or inaction contributed to this tremendous loss,” Kindiki wrote on X.
