Kenya starts DNA testing to identify school fire victims

Kenya has declared three days of mourning for the 21 young victims of a school dormitory blaze last week – Copyright AFP/File SIMON MAINA

Tanya WILLMER

DNA testing was due to begin in Kenya on Monday to help identify the boys who lost their lives in a deadly school dormitory blaze last week.

The nation has also declared three days of mourning for the 21 young victims of the grim tragedy that has raised fresh concerns about safety standards at Kenyan schools.

The children perished after flames engulfed their dormitory at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri county in central Kenya as they were sleeping late on Thursday night.

Nineteen bodies were found in the charred ruins of the building, while another two died in hospital, but 17 were still unaccounted for, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said on Saturday.

Police have said the bodies of the youngsters, aged between nine and 13, were burnt beyond recognition, and families have been facing an agonising wait to find out the fate of their loved ones.

“The forensic exercise of identifying the bodies will start on Monday because that’s the only way they can be identified,” Nyeri County Commissioner Pius Murigu told AFP on Sunday.

“We are urging the affected families to turn up tomorrow at the Naromoru hospital to be part of the next process of forensic identification of the remains from this tragedy,” he said, referring to a medical facility about an hour’s drive from the school.

Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor has said postmortems would begin on Tuesday.

President William Ruto on Friday declared the mourning period to honour the victims of what he described as an “unfathomable tragedy”.

Flags are due to fly at half mast on all Kenyan public buildings, military bases and embassies from dawn on Monday to sunset on Wednesday.

– ‘Evokes bad memories’ –

Ruto has ordered a full investigation into the disaster.

“This incident compels us to ensure accountability in all schools across the country and to take every action we can to safeguard the lives of our school-going children,” he said on Friday.

The Kenya Red Cross has been offering psychological counselling sessions to traumatised children and relatives, setting up white tents in fields outside the Endarasha school gates.

Thursday’s inferno has highlighted the issue of safety at schools in Kenya, after numerous similar incidents over the years, many of them deadly.

On Saturday night, another fire broke out at Isiolo Girls High School, also in central Kenya, with pictures on social media showing several buildings in flames.

Isiolo County communications director Hussein Salesa told AFP there were several injuries, but police said there were none.

Then on Sunday, a fire destroyed a dormitory at Njia Boys High School in the central county of Meru as students were having supper, a police statement said. No casualties were reported.

Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga has instructed police to investigate whether the Endarasha fire was caused by negligence or recklessness, saying it “evokes bad memories of other similar school fire incidents”.

Kenya’s National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated the Endarasha dormitory was “overcrowded, in violation of safety standards”.

“This incident raises serious concerns about children’s rights to safety in educational institutions,” the NGO Vocal Africa said in a statement on X.