St Patrick’s High School Iten on Tuesday suffered an arson attack in a night that kept fire brigades and rescue services battling fires in four other different schools across the country.
At least 180 students at St Patrick’s Boys are reported to have lost their belongings after the biggest and oldest dormitory at the institution was razed to the ground. The dormitory was donated to the school in 1985.
The fire began at around 7.30pm and is suspected to have been ignited by an outsider. Students claimed to have seen somebody running away from the dormitory immediately the fire started but he outran them when they gave a chase.
Keiyo North police boss Fredrick Ochieng said investigations had been launched to establish the cause of the inferno.
“No one was injured as students were in their classes. We have launched investigations to determine the cause and possibly arrest suspects if we find out that the fire was deliberately started,” he said.
St Patrick’s Iten becomes the first national school to be set ablaze since the wave of fires began hitting learning institutions across the country.
Meanwhile, still on Tuesday night, two dormitories were torched at Giakaibei School in Nyeri County, one at St Stephen Secondary School in Narok, Merti Muslim Girls Secondary in Isiolo and Kiini Girl’s High school in Kirinyaga County.
These come as the latest fire incidents adding to the almost a hundred institutions that have reported fires in the last couple of months.