Education CS George Magoha, on Monday, September 23, revealed the blunder that caused the Precious Talent School's classroom to cave in on pupils claiming seven lives.
Speaking at the scene of the incident, the no-nonsense CS explained that he had personally assessed the classroom in the institution and that one was not properly constructed.
He further added that the contractor had created a foundation fo a single-story building before later deciding to add another floor on the building.
“I have been to all the other classrooms and in my most humble opinion they are stable. So if a spade must be called a spade ahead of the investigations, you notice that somebody went and build another storey on top of the temporary structure.
"If you go ahead and do so without anybody’s approval I think we should be fair to each other including being fair to the government,” explained Magoha.
“If the owners of this school had remained with a single-storey building this accident should not have occurred. If we were working in an ideal situation, they should have come to ask for approval from the ministry which I can guarantee you they would not have gotten,” he added
The CS also stated that the ministry was alarmed with the institution's flouting of education rules considering that some students had reported to the institution as early as 7:00 AM.
“Anybody who goes against the ministry’s official hours for children to be in school must be answerable to somebody. Everybody must comply whether public or private,” he continued.
He, therefore, directed the school to be closed down for two weeks to pave way for investigations into the issue.
The tragedy claimed seven innocent lives and 64 other pupils were admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital after sustaining injuries.
