School fires: Why Kenya can't seem to douse the danger

By Pauline Odhiambo

The death of 21 boarders at Hillside Endarasha Academy of Nyeri County in a blaze that broke out in the wee hours of September 6 evoked painful memories of similar catastrophes in the East African nation over the years.

The victims in the latest tragedy were all pupils aged 10-14. They were among 156 boys asleep in their dormitory when flames coursed through the building, leaving some of them with no chance of an escape.

Another fire broke out two days later at Isiolo Girls' High School in central Kenya, about 140km to the northeast of Hillside Endarasha Academy, resulting in injuries to at least three students.

As DNA testing to identify the victims at Endarasha commenced last week, the one question dominating the discourse was: Why are school fires rampant in Kenya?

Lack of emergency exits

"I blame the design of these Kenyan dormitories; they are invariably built without emergency exits," Wambui Gituku, a parent in Nairobi, tells TRT Afrika.

"It is possible that these children at Endarasha died while trying to escape through a single door."

Agnes Onyango, a parent of a high school student in western Kenya, can't get over the dreadful thought of her child being in a similar situation.

"Back in the day, the dormitory of my boarding school caught fire twice. We were all lucky to come out unscathed," she recalls. "As long as safety guidelines are ignored, these fires will continue."

Unrectified electrical faults

According to the Kenya Studies Review journal, many parents in Kenya choose to send their children to boarding schools because they believe they provide a better environment for learning than day institutes.

The fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy may have caused some parents to baulk at the idea of picking a boarding school for their kids.

The trigger for the September 6 blaze has yet to be officially confirmed, but it is believed that the sparks originated from a bulb explosion.

Some parents have disputed this theory, saying there was some unrest among the pupils the previous afternoon, leading to what happened past midnight.

The Daily Nation newspaper quoted an anonymous parent as saying that her son, a day scholar from the seventh grade, reported "anxiety" among some students around 4pm on September 5.

The students had spent "a lot of time" in the dormitory "discussing some issues", which was unusual.

"The normal procedure for children going to the dormitory during the day is well spelt out. They go there in the company of a matron and pick up whatever items they want, then go back out immediately. Why was this rule breached," she was quoted as saying.

The school management has been silent since the tragedy.

Safety-manual violation

In 2008, the then education minister, Sam Ongeri, published a safety manual for schools, detailing the acceptable standards of school structures.

The manual requires all dormitories to have a door at each end and another in the middle as the third access, clearly labelled "Emergency Exit".

Fire extinguishers should be functioning and placed at each exit, at least five feet wide, with fire alarms fitted at easily accessible points.

Many of these safety regulations are ignored, which experts blame for the recurrence of fires over the years.

More than 70% of the schools in Kenya have never done fire drills to teach learners how to respond during fires, according to Usawa Agenda, an organisation that conducts surveys on learning levels in Kenya.

"There have been about six fire incidents in five schools in September alone," Dr Emmanuel Manyasa, Usawa Agenda's executive director, tells TRT Afrika. "Deaths occur because most schools in the country are not following the safety guidelines."

Many dormitories are overcrowded, with only 46% having a fire assembly point.

Arson and sabotage threat

According to a 2022 study by the University of Nairobi, some school fires in Kenya are caused by arson.

In 2017, Kenya's National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) found that some students are triggered by frustration at poor living and learning conditions or lengthy school terms made longer by sports competitions and other extracurricular activities.

The organisation also attributes such unrest to peer pressure and copycat behaviour by impressionable minds who might have heard of similar incidents on campuses elsewhere.

According to parliamentary records, Kenyan authorities documented 130 cases of school fires related to student unrest, with at least 63 arson cases reported in 2018 alone.

These incidents usually happen at night and often in school dormitories.

Manyasa notes that school fires tend to spike during exam periods.

"In some cases, disgruntled teachers are at fault. The rule of law should be applied to these perpetrators," he says.

Loopholes in counselling

A 2018 parliamentary report on unrest in schools and its consequences cites inadequate counselling services on campuses as one of the factors exacerbating the problem.

"Students who show violent behaviour should be identified earlier for counselling," Manyasa tells TRT Afrika.

"In circumstances where counselling alone isn't working, troubled students should be admitted to approved schools to help rectify their behaviour."

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