More than 15 students were yesterday night injured following a fire outbreak at Lang’ata High School in Nairobi. The inferno whose cause is yet to be established broke out at around 7pm in one of the institution’s dormitories.
The dormitory had four wings with a capacity of 200. Three of the wings were completely burnt down. Nairobi County Police Commandant Japheth Koome noted that two fire engines were deployed to the institution and the fire was extinguished at around 8:48pm.
According to Mr Koome, the injured students suffered minor injuries while attempting to salvage their properties.
“Most of them had scratches while others had inhaled too much smoke. But all of them were treated by the emergency care at the school and discharged,” he said.
This comes as the latest fire incident in schools adding to over 70 arson cases witnessed in various learning institutions across the country over the last one month.
Reports indicate that on Sunday evening alone, four other schools among them Kijabe High School, Ndanai Girls’ School in Bomet, Liai Secondary and Ruiga Girls School in Meru suffered arson attacks.
Meanwhile, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has called on the Government to close down schools and address the escalating school fire incidents.
On Sunday, Sossion said they believe the recent unrest in schools was occasioned by the change of school calendar which he claims was done without consultations.
“We believe that cutting down on the school calendar would be of great help and an immediate measure of arresting the disastrous fire incidences that could boil into much more painful occurrences if not dealt with properly,” Sossion said.