Kenya: seven high school students killed in a fire in their dormitory

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AFP

Saturday, September 2, 2017 05:42

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Saturday, September 2, 2017 05:42

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Nairobi, Kenya, Seven students were killed and 10 others were injured Saturday in a fire in their dormitory, in the kenyan capital Nairobi, announced by the minister of Education.

“We lost seven students in this unfortunate incident,” said to the press the minister, Fred Matiangi during a visit on Saturday morning on the place of the drama. “Ten others have been taken to the hospital because of their injuries”.

Dr. Matiangi, who is also the minister of the Interior, announced that it has opened an in-depth investigation to establish the causes of the disaster in one of the dormitories of the high school Me, a renowned establishment that caters for approximately 1000 girls aged mostly 14 to 18 years, in the district of Kibera in Nairobi.

“We need to shed light on this incident, ( … ), The police and other investigative teams have already started the investigation and I can assure you that strict measures will”, said the minister.

The school has been closed for the next two weeks and the students, shocked many of them, have been returned to their families.

During the first half of 2016, Kenya was confronted with an unprecedented wave of arson of the public schools: between June and July 2016, 113 secondary schools spread to the four corners of the country had been partially destroyed by fire.

Some 150 students were arrested and charged with arson, as ten teachers.

The causes of this epidemic of fires had been difficult to identify by the authorities and the kenyan press had echoes of a range of possible reasons: reprisals of a “cartel” is associated with the juicy traffic topics, reviews, growls in the face of the change in the school calendar and revolt against methods that are perceived as authoritarian Mr Matiangi.