Down memory lane: How Gov’t has failed to learn from past school fire tragedies

As the country reels from the shock of the Hillside Endarasha Academy dormitory fire, the tragedy has invoked memories of previous school fires that ended in death, broken families, and questions over the safety of children in boarding schools.

Despite a safety standards manual published by the Ministry of Education in 2008, it seems demands to ensure compliance only follow when tragedies occur.

Ten girls died in the Moi Girls High School dormitory fire in 2017. The perpetrator, a 14-year-old student, was convicted of manslaughter five years later and handed a 5-year jail term.

August 2012, eight girls died in a dormitory fire at Asumbi Girls Primary School caused by an electric fault.

The girls, burnt beyond recognition, were unable to escape because the doors were locked from outside and the windows grilled, with no emergency exit.

In 2010, two boys died in a dormitory fire in Endarasha Boys High School in Nyeri after 11 boys set it on fire. Fourteen suspects, including a businessman, were charged with two counts of murder but later freed after a 10-year court process.

In 1999, four boys who served as prefects at the Nyeri High School died after a section of students locked them in their dormitory while they slept, doused it in petrol, and set it on fire. It later turned out it was a revenge mission from a section of boys who had been suspended.

In what has been termed as the worst school fire tragedy, 67 boys died in a dormitory at Kyanguli Secondary School in 2001 after two disgruntled 16-year-old boys doused the dormitory in petrol and set it on fire. The dormitory housed 100 boys aged between 15 and 19 years.

That was just three years after 26 girls died in a 1998 dormitory fire at Bombolulu Girls Secondary School. The girls died in an overcrowded dormitory of 130.

One of the dormitory doors was locked from outside, 10 of its windows barred, and there was no fire extinguisher. Some of the girls died in a stampede as they tried to escape through two narrow doors.

Incidents that follow criminal procedures of those held culpable of arson, murder, or manslaughter, but barely a word on actions taken against school heads or Ministry of Education officials who should have ensured compliance with safety measures outlined in the safety standards manual of 2008.

But, as history has shown, every tragedy since the Bombolulu fire of 1998 follows a string of condolences from the government and no word on accountability by school administrations and the Ministry of Education on ensuring compliance with a safety manual published in 2008.

The question that now lingers is whether the 18 lives lost at the Hillside Endarasha Academy will be the last, or if schools will continue to operate with impunity.