INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A fire raged through the dormitory of a boarding school for young children in central Kenya in the early hours of Friday, killing 17 boys
sleeping there, police said.Citizen Television said the fire had burnt the victims beyond recognition
Its footage from the scene showed collapsed iron-sheet roofing and charred metal storage boxes on top of double-decker beds in the
dormitory, Reuters reported.The blaze occurred at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri, a primary boarding school for young students.&We
have lost 17 pupils in the fire incident while 14 are injured,& police spokesperson Resila Onyango said
&Our team is at the scene at the moment.&Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said the boys were in grades 4 to 8, putting their ages at
He said in a statement the dormitory housed 156 students.The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.President William Ruto said he had
told authorities to investigate what he called the &horrific incident& and said those responsible would be held to account.Authorities have
cordoned off the school, the Kenya Red Cross said on X
Calls by Reuters to the school&s main phone line went unanswered.Kenya has a history of school fires, many of which have turned out to be
arson.Nine students were killed in Sept 2017 in a fire at a school in the capital Nairobi that the government attributed to arson.In 2001,
58 schoolboys were killed in a dormitory fire at Kyanguli Secondary School outside Nairobi
In 2012, eight students were killed at a school in Homa Bay County in western Kenya.The post Fire rips through Kenya boarding school
dormitory, killing 17 boys first appeared on Ariana News.
