Friday, August 24, 2012

Mutula sacks officers over Asumbi tragedy


By Standard Digital Reporter
Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo has sacked Homabay County Director of Education Beatrice Asiango and District Education Officer William Okumu over Asumbi Primary fire tragedy that killed 8 pupils.
The Schools’ Board of Governors has also been dissolved following the Wednesday night inferno.
The minister has also asked TSC to take action on the school's head teacher for violating tuition ban.
On Thursday, Mutula had directed his PS to take disciplinary action against Homa Bay director of education for the death of eight children in a dormitory fire.
He had recommended that the county director, the school head teacher and the management board be disciplined for failing to adhere to the national policy on holiday tuition.
“I have instructed the PS to institute disciplinary action against the concerned. This is a tragic incident that should not have happened,” said Mutula on Thursday.
Eight students were burned alive inside their dormitory on Wednesday after it caught fire and were unable to run to safety because the door to the hostel was locked from outside.
Witnesses say the young girls at St Theresa’s Asumbi Girls Boarding Primary in Homabay County, screamed for help as the inferno raged but there was no rescue nearby at the school managed by Catholic nuns.
It was not immediately clear as to why the pupils were locked up as the tragedy visited the school only two weeks after Education ministry banned holiday tuition.

The ninth victim, who was rescued by villagers from the fierce fire, was rushed to Homabay District Hospital in a critical condition.
Initial investigations pointed at a tree which fell on an electricity line before the fire started.

The girls who had retired to bed were burnt beyond recognition as their colleagues in an adjacent dormitory scampered for safety for fear of losing their lives in a fire that started shortly after 8PM.
The burned dormitory had its windows grilled with wire mesh and did not have emergency exit.

During the incident, tens of locals responded to the girls’ distress calls and forced their way into the institution after the watchman at the gate declined to open for them, only to find the dormitory door locked from outside with a padlock.

“The dormitory was on fire, we broke the padlock and one girl managed to come out burning and she collapsed on reaching outside. She was rushed by an ambulance to Homabay District Hospital,” said William Otieno, one of the first people to arrive at the scene.

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

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