Rioting students burn down dormitories
Two more schools in Eastern Province went on rampage on
Sunday evening setting ablaze their dormitories before police brought the situation under
control.
At Johana Chase Secondary School in Machakos District,
rowdy students burnt down one of the dormitories.
Eastern Provincial Police Officer Mr Thomas Chigamba who
confirmed the two incidents said that a section of the dormitory housing over 200 students
was reduced to ashes in the night inferno.
The fire which started at 10.30 pm on Sunday took members
of the public over three hours to put off.
Police in Machakos say the fire could have been fueled by
petrol. Police who had been called to the school compound recovered a five-litre container
that is believed to have carried the fuel that torched the boarding facility.
At least 14 schools in Machakos district have been closed
down due to strikes that have rocked secondary schools in the area.
And in Njuri Mixed Secondary School in Chuka, fire
gutted down boys dormitory before it was put off.
The dormitory that houses at least 50 students was burnt
down and nothing was salvaged. Police suspect the fire was caused by an electrical fault,
however investigations have been put in place to establish the cause of the fire.
In Murang’a District, Kiriti Mixed Secondary
School in Mathioya has been closed indefinitely after students went on the rampage causing
extensive damage to the principal’s house.
Kiriti was closed on Sunday following Saturday night riots
where the students broke into the house of the principal Mr James Mwaniki’s house and
looted it.
Some of his personal effects were found strewn near
Gacharage chief’s camp the next morning.
The nightlong chaos started after the students declined to
go to bed at 9:30 pm and started protesting the transfer of a teacher they described as a
favourite.
They accused the principal of being behind the transfer and
demanded that it be canceled with immediate effect. The students are said to have switched
off electric power plunging the school into darkness before raiding the principal’s
house which they looted and trashed.
Deputy principal Charles Wanderi who was at the school at
the time chased away the students and called in police.
It becomes the third school to be hit by a wave of unrest
that has dogged learning institutions in the district. |
