Inside school death chamber

By EVELYN KWAMBOKA and JAMES OMORO

Amid the dying embers of the horrible night blaze that snuffed out the lives of eight girls whose future held much promise are the answers to what really happened in the dormitory that ultimately became their death chamber.

As some crouched in a corner, terrified to their very bones, and in indescribable pain as the acrid smoke and flames enveloped them, the girls must have asked how their thirst for education was coming to such a terrifying finale.

Initial reports from Asumbi Girls Boarding Primary School’s administration and the policepointed fingers at a possible electrical fault, as the cause of the fire. A nun told The Standard there had been constant power outages that evening prior to the fire.

It is suspected that lessons from past similar incidents in other parts of the country were tossed aside and the “secure” dormitory, with grilled windows and a door padlocked from without, became another fiery reminder that most public boarding schools are disasters waiting to happen. 

Did the school administration flout the safety regulations published by the Ministry of Education in 2008?

The Standard Seven girls, all pupils at the highly reputed Catholic Church-run school in Homa Bay County, about 73km from Kisumu town, were burnt beyond recognition within hours of the blaze.

Parents maintained the pupils met their untimely death while in school for tuition, with one critically injured as she struggled to free herself from the dungeon of death. Their deaths came a day after the Kenya Episcopal Conference, the Catholic Church’s top decision making organ made up of bishops chaired by John Cardinal Njue supported Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo over the ban on holiday tuition. Even worse, it took the first Government officials about 15 hours after the tragedy had occurred to arrive at the school.

Amid total disregard by the administration of the Ministry of Education’s guidelines on basic safety standards for schools, the innocent girls met their painful death as the door to the dormitory in which they were spending the night had been locked from the outside and the keys could not be traced.

Three of the dead girls were holding on to one another, two were on the floor, and others lay on a bed next to the door, the position and state of their charred remains indicated they were struggling to escape.

“Where was the key and why were they locked up? Even in a prison a security officer with the keys sits close by. Did they have to die this way?” an agonised Vincent Agong, who lost a child in the tragedy, asked the Government. There were contradicting statements on what the eight students were doing in school, with parents maintaining the school administration had demanded they go for tuition, but the security committee and school said they had just returned from a Nairobi tour. Parents representing Standard Six and Seven pupils said their daughters returned to the school on Friday last week for holiday tuition.

“Let us not lie to each other. Our children were here for tuition and I personally paid Sh2,000 for her to be  here,” said a distraught Agong. The parents, who travelled from nearby counties to learn the fate of their children, spent the chilly night outside the institution waiting for the school administration to tell them the whereabouts of their children.

Women wailed when they failed to find their children among those who survived the inferno. For the lucky lot, tears rolled freely down their cheeks, as they embraced their children who survived the tragedy that left Nyanza security team in shock.

Nyanza Security Committee members led by area PC Francis Mutie were shocked as they did not expect pupils to be at the institution following Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo’s ban on tuition, forcing them to call a crisis meeting.

“I want those who have information regarding the incident to come with us into the room,” said the PC, who arrived at the scene more than 15 hours after the tragedy.

Area County Commissioner Samuel Otieno, deputy OCPD Kennedy Wabuoba, area MP Martin Ogindo, school officials, and teachers attended the meeting the PC chaired.

Addressing the media after the meeting, the PC backed the school’s stand that no tuition was being conducted at the institution. The PC, along with Church officials, said the students had returned from a trip, which Ministry of Education approved. This came as Prime Minister Raila Odinga ordered security teams to investigate the incident.

The girls who died in the fire had retired to bed at around 7pm.  The fire is said to have started an hour later. Their colleagues in an adjacent dormitory scampered for safety when the fire broke.

During the incident, hundreds of locals responded to the girls’ distress calls and forced their way into the institution after the night watchman declined to open the gates for them.  They found the dormitory door secured with a padlock.

“The dormitory was on fire; we broke the padlock and one girl came out in flames. She collapsed on reaching outside and was rushed by ambulance to Homa Bay District Hospital,” said a witness, William Otieno.

Another witness, George Owino, said three of the girls died on one bed; two bodies were lying on the floor, and the others were in a corner near the door.

 “It is like the girls were rushing to the door, but were overwhelmed. We started using buckets to put out the fire before a fire engine arrived from Kisii town,” Mr Owino said. Policemen arrived at the scene and kicked Owino and the other villagers out of the school compound moments after 72 girls who were safe were taken to the teachers’ quarters.

Relatives and friends drove to the institution from areas such as Kisumu, Kisii, Nyamira, and Kericho to know the fate of the children, but they were not allowed inside the compound. Anxious parents sat in groups as they awaited word from the school administrators in vain. “The school management has refused to tell me whether my sister is alive.

 It is 4am and they have locked us outside here since 9.30pm when we arrived from Kisii,” said Joseph Mokaya. The parents said the Standard Six and Seven pupils reported to school last Friday for tuition. Those in Standard Eight returned from a Nairobi tour on Saturday, and continued with tuition.

“I called the school early last week and was told to just send my daughter Sandra Ngala to school despite the ban. She used to sleep in the same dormitory where the eight girls died,” said a tearful mother, who travelled from Awendo, fearing that her daughter was among those who died.

The incident brought back memories of Bombolulu Girls in Mazeras and Kyanguli Boys Secondary in Machakos where students perished in the dormitories, forcing the Government to come up with guidelines.