Teacher testifies in Nyeri dormitory fire deaths

By Wainaina Ndung’u

Students have unsuccessfully tried twice to burn a Nyeri school where two students died in a dormitory fire last year.

Nyeri High Court judge Joseph Sergon was told on Wednesday that authorities at Endarasha High School in Kieni West District, Nyeri County, had on two occasions stopped arson attempts by students.

Form One students Kennedy Karugu Njuguna and Joseph Mwangi Kamau died when a fire razed Wambugu dormitory on the night of October 17, last year.

Mathematics teacher William Mbogo Githu said students attempted to burn the institution again early this year and immediately after reopening for third term in September.

The teacher, however, told a packed courtroom that the school, where he has taught for the last 28 years, was steadily recovering from the indiscipline experienced last year.

Burnt dormitory

He was testifying in a murder case against 13 students who were in Form Three, who are charged alongside motorcycle operator Ayub Kung’u Waweru, gasoline seller Fredrick Githinji Wangai and villager Stephen Mwaniki. They are all out on Sh500,000 bond.

The teacher, who lives about 10km from the school, said a villager called and informed him that one of the dormitories was on fire.

He said he called teachers residing in the school and one of them confirmed the incident. The next morning as the students tried to salvage their items from the burnt dormitory, they discovered the charred remains of their two colleagues.

"The bodies were lying close together and were burnt beyond recognition," said the teacher, adding that until then no one knew someone had died in the fire.

The teacher said the arson was as a result of acrimony among Form Three and Form Two students over several issues.

"The grievances centred on the diet and alleged misappropriation of funds for extending the school dormitories. They also wanted the principal transferred," said Githu.

He said students from the two classes had been sent home before on September 3 and had rejoined the other students at the end of midterm break on the day the dormitory was set on fire.

First-born son

Fighting back tears, middle-aged Jacinta Wambui Kanyaru, a mother of one of the students who died in the fire, said the loss of her firstborn child had devastated her.

"When my son failed to call me as usual, I called a woman whose phone he used to communicate with me. She informed me she had collected her son because there had been a fire the night before. She said she had not seen my son," said Ms Kanyaru.