Disaster lurks in classrooms, dorms as safety standards are not observed

The Kakamega tragedy comes four months after seven pupils died when a wall collapsed on them at a school in Nairobi, triggering a nationwide crackdown to enforce safety standards.

In what highlighted a worrying trend of neglected schools, pupils at Precious Talent Academy in Ng’ando area along Ngong Road had raised the alarm a week before the tragedy that the walls were giving away, but their concerns were ignored.

It emerged that pupils would feel the classrooms sway and shake but their teachers never bothered to carry out checks that would have prevented the looming disaster. 

In the end, the structure gave way and ended up injuring at least 64 pupils.

Immediately after the collapse, the Ministry of Education embarked on an exercise to close down all schools that had not complied with safety guidelines.

Education CS George Magoha said the crackdown would continue until order was restored and requested public support to keep children safe in schools. He later revealed that at least four other schools had been closed by September after safety concerns were raised.

An operation to shut dangerous schools was scheduled for the November-December holiday. At the same time, the Education ministry was to start disciplinary measures against 500 quality assurance officers who had "slept on the job".

Education PS Belio Kipsang (pictured) said there were still schools with poor infrastructure that were operating in breach of set minimum safety standards.

"All officers are instructed to carry out the exercise with diligence and failure to do so will result in disciplinary action being taken against the officers concerned,” said Kipsang.

Apart from the issue of weak structures, some security features have turned classes and dormitories into death traps.

On August 22, 2012, eight students lost their lives in a dormitory fire at Asumbi Girls Primary School. The door of the dorm was locked from the outside and the windows had grills, making it difficult for the girls to escape.

After an inquest, the blame was laid at the feet of the school management. Justice David Majanja referred to the dormitory as a death trap.

In another incident where four students died at Le Pic Secondary School in Riruta, Nairobi, on the night of October 14, 2012, a student was accused of starting the fire.

But in a judgment delivered on September 12 last year, a court dismissed the charge against the student on the grounds that the investigation and prosecution were poorly done.

Long before these incidents, Kenyans had in March 2001 woken up to the tragic news of the deaths of 67 boys at Kyanguli Secondary School in Machakos. The incident came hot on the heels of yet another incident at Bombolulu Girls where more than 20 school girls perished.

In the Kyanguli fire incident, the head teacher and his deputy were jointly charged with the offence of failing to prevent a felony. They were sentenced to eight months imprisonment but were set free on appeal.