by Nurat Uthman
Kenyan police stepped up their investigations Saturday into a prime school dormitory blaze that has now cost the lives of 18 boys, as families faced an agonising wait for news of their missing loved ones.
“It is a catastrophe beyond our imagination,” government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said at a press briefing at the Hillside Endarasha Academy where the fire struck around midnight Thursday.
The flames engulfed a dormitory at the primary school where more than 150 boys aged between nine and 13 were sleeping.
Mwaura said 18 children had died in the blaze at the school in the central county of Nyeri, up from a previous toll of 17 given by President William Ruto on Friday.
“It is truly devastating for the nation to lose such a number of young and promising Kenyans. Our hearts are heavy,” Mwaura said.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua had said on Friday that 70 youngsters were still unaccounted for after the fire.
Mwaura said about 20 had now been accounted for as of Saturday, but declined to give any further details.
The cause of the inferno is not yet known but homicide investigators and forensic experts are at the school, where media access has been blocked.
The charred bodies of victims, which police had said were burnt beyond recognition, were still in the dormitory, now a blackened shell with its corrugated iron roof completely collapsed.
“Today we want to begin the process of DNA testing,” Kenya’s chief homicide detective Martin Nyuguto told AFP.
Ruto has declared three days of national mourning from Monday after what he described as an “unfathomable tragedy”.
“I pledge that the difficult questions that have been asked such as how this tragedy occurred and why the response was not timely will be answered; fully, frankly, and without fear or favour,” Ruto said in a statement.
“All relevant persons and bodies will be held to account.”
