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Police on Friday confirmed that at least 17 children died after a fire ripped through a primary school dormitory overnight in central Kenya.
The blaze in Nyeri county’s Hillside Endarasha Academy broke out at around midnight, police said, engulfing rooms where the children were sleeping.
The National police spokesperson, Resila Onyango told AFP that, “There are 17 fatalities from this incident and there are also others who were taken to hospital with serious injuries.
“The bodies recovered at the scene were burnt beyond recognition,” she said.
Police said the average age of the victims was around nine years old.
Several others were injured, Onyango said, 16 of them seriously, and had been rushed to a nearby hospital.
“More bodies are likely to be recovered once (the) scene is fully processed,” she said.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, she said, but an investigation had been launched.
Following the incident, President William Ruto expressed his condolences for those killed.
“Our thoughts are with the families of the children who have lost their lives in the fire tragedy. This is devastating news,” he said in a post on X.
He said he had instructed officials to “thoroughly investigate this horrific incident”, and promised that those responsible will be “held to account”.
In 1994, 40 school children were burned alive and 47 injured in a fire that ravaged the Shauritanga Secondary School for Girls in the northern region of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
AFP
