UPDATE: Tuesday, February 2; Karia Secondary school has been closed for two weeks to allow for investigations to be carried out by police officers following the torching of two dormitories by unruly students.
The school principal confirmed that there had been unrest in the school since the students resumed classes on Monday, January 4.
Kirinyaga Deputy County Commissioner Daniel Ndege noted that a section of form three and four students had been identified as the key suspects in the arson case.
The deputy governor for Kirinyaga Peter Ndambiri called for parents, teachers, and all education stakeholders to rally together towards bringing corporal punishment to schools.
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Students at Karia secondary school, Kirinyaga County have been left stranded after an inferno burnt down their school dormitory.
The incident, which reportedly occurred around Sunday morning, January 17, saw the property of unknown value destroyed during the heavy fire that engulfed the dormitory.
According to the school management, the dormitory housed at least 86 students.
There were no reports of injuries during the inferno as the students were in class when the fire broke out.
Unfortunately, their belongings including bedding, school uniforms, boxes and mattresses were burnt to ashes.
Speaking to a local media house, a teacher claimed that they found beds in the dormitory up in flames.
This prompted him to alert his colleagues and students who teamed up in an effort to put out the inferno.
Soon after, they sought to establish the cause of the dormitory fire.
He stated that they found an inflammable substance along with a matchbox. Other students noted that they found a fellow student fleeing the dormitory when it caught fire.
There have been concerns about school preparedness to deal with fires as most are not contained in time posing a danger to students.
Recent cases have shown that fire emergency teams take time to respond to such incidents. Cases such as Musingu High school dormitory in Kakamega County, Masara Mixed Secondary School in Suna West Sub-County saw schools counting losses after the incidents.
Parents have initially called for fire response trucks to be deployed to various counties in the rural areas to curb the rising cases of fire incidents in schools.
