Nine students from Miathene Boys High School in Meru County were detained on Tuesday after a fire broke out at the learning institution on the evening of July 16, 2024 razing a dormitory.
A court in Meru ordered the 9 to be held for 10 days to allow for police officers to conduct investigations on the suspected arson.
By the time of publishing this article, the students were being held at Tigania police station, Ngundune in Meru County.
Confirming the incident, the Eastern Region Commissioner Paul Rotich said, “Millions of shillings have been lost in the school arsons and I want to warn learners that culprits will be brought to book.”
Fire razes down Jamhuri Dormitory at Njia Boys High School.
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The arson which ravaged an entire dormitory is suspected to have been fueled by a rival school’s strike that had happened just 2 days before.
This crucial arrest comes on the heels of a surge in school fires that have rocked the nation over the last week.
Notably, Njia Boys’ High School in the same county went up in flames just three days ago. Six students are already under investigation for the same.
The Meru county commissioner Jacob Ouma on September 10 stated that the six were captured on CCTV committing the crime adding, “We went there this morning and found that one of their dorms with a capacity of 160 students was burned down and preliminary investigations have revealed that this is an arson case involving rebellious students.”
Last week, a fire broke out at Hillside Endarasha School in Nyeri County, a tragedy which left 21 pupils dead. Since then, fires have been reported at several other schools across the country.
For instance, on the morning of September 11, Ng’ombeni Girls’ High School became the latest school in the country where a fire has been reported within a span of one week.
President William Ruto has already ordered investigations into the rampant school fires which many speculate are related to the upcoming school examinations.
“Security agencies must speed up investigations on the Hillside Academy fire tragedy and all other affected institutions,” the Head of State posted on September 10 after receiving a report from the Ministry of Education on the fire incident at Hillside Endarasha.
A police station in Kenya.
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NPS
