San Francisco Frontiers - Kenya starts DNA testing for school fire victims

Kenya's government declared three days of mourning amid public anger over continued safety lapses and repeated fires in the country's schools.

The children perished after flames engulfed their dormitory at the Hillside Endarasha Academy, a boarding school in the central Nyeri county, as they were sleeping on Thursday night.

Nineteen bodies were found in the charred ruins of the building, while another two died in hospital.

But 17 were still unaccounted for, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said Saturday.

Police said the victims in the dormitory, aged nine to 13, were burnt beyond recognition.

On Monday, local media showed images of parents waiting outside Naromoru hospital, a medical facility an hour's drive from the school.

"The forensic exercise of identifying the bodies will start on Monday because that's the only way they can be identified," Nyeri County Commissioner Pius Murigu told AFP on Sunday.

President William Ruto has described the incident as an "unfathomable tragedy".

Flags were to be flown at half-mast on all Kenyan public buildings, military bases and embassies from Monday to Wednesday.

- 'Bad memories' -

Ruto has ordered a full investigation.

"This incident compels us to ensure accountability in all schools across the country and to take every action we can to safeguard the lives of our school-going children," he said on Friday.

The Kenya Red Cross has been offering psychological counselling to traumatised children and relatives, setting up white tents in fields outside the school gates.

Thursday's inferno has highlighted the issue of safety at schools in Kenya, after numerous similar incidents over the years, many of them deadly.

A spate of school blazes occurred in 2016, with authorities saying that in a three-month period there were 117 arson incidents at education establishments across the country.

On Saturday night, another fire broke out at Isiolo Girls High School, also in central Kenya, with pictures on social media showing several buildings in flames.

Isiolo County communications director Hussein Salesa told AFP there were several injuries, but police said there were none.

Then on Sunday, a fire destroyed a dormitory at Njia Boys High School in the central county of Meru as students were having supper, a police statement said. No casualties were reported.

Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga has instructed police to investigate whether the Endarasha fire was caused by negligence or recklessness, saying it "evokes bad memories of other similar school fire incidents".

The cause of the fire remains unclear, but local media reported that police were investigating whether it was started by an electrical fault in a light bulb.

Kenya's National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated the Endarasha dormitory was "overcrowded, in violation of safety standards".

"This incident raises serious concerns about children's rights to safety in educational institutions," the NGO Vocal Africa said in a statement on X.

I.Rodriguez--SFF