Endarasha fire tragedy deserves inquiry by a parliamentary team

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during the funeral service of pupils who died in the fire tragedy at Hillside Endarasha Academy, at Mweiga Stadium, Nyeri county. [DPCS]

The memorial and funeral ceremony for 21 children who burned to death in their school dormitory at Hillside Endarasha Academy was the most painful and heartbreaking service I have ever watched.

This is not an ordinary matter and therefore, an ordinary investigation is insufficient. Parliament should establish an ad hoc committee under article 124 of the Constitution to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into fires in schools and institutions with a view to legislate and ensure such a devastating catastrophe never recur.

Parliament’s involvement would give it the national gravitas and impetus to conclusively address this matter. This is because such a committee working within the powers, privileges and budgets of both houses of Parliament, can cover broad areas of concerns on the management and operations of private and public schools and lead up to appropriate legislation or amendments of existing legislation.

According to Parliament, committees are important because besides facilitating division of labour, they offer opportunity for dealing with several matters simultaneously in a suitable deliberative forum with the requisite expertise to consider matters in greater detail and to perform special functions including investigations, hearing evidence from witnesses, travelling for inquiries, seeking advice from experts, and deliberating on matters under inquiry before reporting their findings to Parliament.

Committees can also be bipartisan giving less prominence to partisan party politics to enable them review contentious matters more effectively, and assist parliamentary debate by clarifying issues and establishing common ground between members of different parties. They would also interact and communicate with the public and stakeholders in education.

This parliamentary inquiry/investigation can work simultaneously with ongoing investigations to establish culpability and punish negligence and any other associated crimes to deter impunity and compensate the families of the deceased children. This would be a more worthwhile undertaking instead of attempts to extend presidential terms to seven years.

Kenyans are struggling under the yoke of poverty, high costs of living, insecurity and fear and intimidation from those with the primary responsibility to protect. Defenders of human rights and liberties should be outraged by claims by the Interior Cabinet Secretary that the Gen Zs protests and invasion of Parliament on 25th June 2024 was an attempted coup when so many of our young children were massacred by security officers, captured on camera.

It is farfetched to try to connect peaceful protests to an attempted coup. A coup can only succeed when the coup leaders convince others to believe in it and go out purposely to stroke the state. Chanting “Ruto must go,” in itself does not constitute a coup, in fact, just like any crime, there must be intention and deliberate action such as seizing a broadcasting station to declare a coup; an invasion of Parliament, the house of representatives does not amount to a coup.

In fact, President Ruto is not an MP and the Gen Zs know that. The invasion of Parliament was a clear message that the sovereign is tired of the lack of representation by those they have delegated sovereign power to! The people wanted to seize back their sovereign power and authority, which they delegate every five years to their elected representatives under Article 1 of the Constitution. How can actions of sovereign people demanding justice and accountability from their employees amount to a coup?

This is why we expect much from our Interior CS who is also a professor of law. On a positive note, public universities strike ended under 10 days following a return-to-work formula between the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum of the Federation of Kenya Employers and the Universities Academic Staff Union with a similar deal being also struck with Kenya Universities Staff Union.

It is noteworthy that the deals include agreements on non-victimisation or non-disciplinary actions being taken against union members, never mind the Constitution clearly providing union rights in article 41. The employer, public universities, must pay basic salary of between 7-10 per cent immediately, to reflect in the end of October 2024 salaries and ensure automatic annual increment of 4 per cent from 1st July 2023 and other non-negotiable agreements.