Seventeen children, most of them around 9 years old, were burnt alive in a school in Kenya.
The tragedy occurred in one of the dormitories of the Hillside Endarasha Junior School, in the village of Kieni not far from Nyeri, about 250 kilometres north of the capital Nairobi.
Around midnight, due to causes yet to be established and under investigation by investigators of the special unit of the national police, the wing of the school in which a total of 156 pupils were sleeping caught fire. The structure, mostly built of wood, turned into a blaze that was fatal to the children who were sleeping at that time. Thirteen of them managed to escape, however, suffering severe burns, and are being treated at the hospital in Othaya.
It also emerged that the firefighters who responded to the incident had no water, which hampered rescue operations, local media reported. This forced them to search for water 16 kilometres away, delaying the response. Initial investigations have also uncovered a detail that partly explains the tragedy: the dormitory is allegedly not equipped with emergency exits.
The police, who intervened at the scene with some speed, could do no more than note the misfortune, as did many of the parents of the Hillside pupils. Police spokeswoman, Resila Onyango, said she feared that other young students were trapped in the dormitory and might be found charred as the search continues.
Sadly, this is not the first time that such an incident has occurred at a school in Kenya, and the condolences and timely sympathy shown by politicians to the families of the very young victims is of little use.