President Ruto Is Keeping Tab On Progress Of Investigation Into The Cause Of Fire That Snuffed Out Life Of 21 Learners
The Mt Kenya Times 
President William Ruto addressing the new cabinet secretaries.
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- The President also announced a three day period of mourning during which the national flag will fly at half mast.
- In the same breath, he directed the security agencies to conduct thorough investigations and this should be done speedily.
- Besides the affected families, Kenyans want to know the cause of this fire.
- The President also promised Kenyans that this will not happen again.
- My government is going to come up with strict school safety measures and ensure they are enforced to the letter and spirit.
- It is worth to note that this is not the first time we have witnessed tragic incidents of school fires snuffing out the life of learners and students.
President William Ruto was in China when the fire that gutted a dormitory at Endarasha School Academy snuffed out life of 21 learners.
His response was swift a move that demonstrated he was receiving timely briefings from security agencies of what was happening back at home.
In his statement, he left no doubt that he had been deeply touched with this sad and unfortunate incident.
He consoled the parents and guardians of those who lost thier loved ones and wished the learners who were admitted at various hospitals a quick recovery.
As parents, we know that losing a child is very painful. The wish of every parent is to see the child completing education and thereafter being able to take care of himself, uplift the living standard of his or her family and serve the nation.
We therefore understand the pain you are going through. We share this pain and my government will stand with you.
The President also announced a three day period of mourning during which the national flag will fly at half mast.
In the same breath, he directed the security agencies to conduct thorough investigations and this should be done speedily.
Besides the affected families, Kenyans want to know the cause of this fire.
The President also promised Kenyans that this will not happen again.
My government is going to come up with strict school safety measures and ensure they are enforced to the letter and spirit.
It is worth to note that this is not the first time we have witnessed tragic incidents of school fires snuffing out the life of learners and students.
Most of the fires witnessed during the eras of Presidents Daniel Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta burnt dormitories broke out when the students were asleep.
I remember President Moi had set up commission of inquiry to probe the cause of these fires and come up with safety measures.
But it seemed the recommendations were not implemented.
I am sure President Ruto’s administration will borrow heavily from that report and others including the one compiled by his government to come up with long lasting interventions.
Back to Endarasha fire tragedy, we saw a high powered team of government officials immediately visiting this school.
Given that this was a serious matter that bordered on security lapse, one would have expected to hear Interior Cabinet Secretary and heads of security agencies briefing the country.
This was not however the case. All of officials opted to issue separate statements.
This did not augur because they ended up contradicting each other.
For Government Spokesperson, I heard him saying the government will donate rice and beans to this school.
This did not go down well with the bereaved parents and those whose children were missing. “We are not here for food. We want our children”.
Ideally, one would have expected the Spokesperson to communicate the briefs from the CS.
The CS, on the other hand, was required to present to him some of the information he had from the security agencies.
The agencies would treat some of the information as confidential and hence would not allow it to be shared with the public. Reason? This is a matter under the investigation.
Initial media reports indicated that a number of children who had managed to escape when the fire broke out in the middle of night were missing.
Speaking when he visited the school, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki stated. We believe that these children left the school premises and got accommodated by the neighbors.
As a government, we want to ensure all the children are accounted for. So, we ask the neighbors who have these children to return them back to school.
Initially, the confusion raged as leaders gave contradicting statements on exact number of missing children. This again exacerbated the anger of the affected families.
Generation-Z had also taken note of this and would later keep their word of visiting this school. They demanded to know from the government where ’70 missing children’ were.
GenZ visited the school a day after Prof. Kindiki stated that all children are accounted for.
For now, no child is missing. Police have confirmed this after conducting investigations.
Therefore, whoever gave you that information totally misled you. These officials were behaving badly and we are zeroing on them. Here we are dealing with very serious matter of life. It is therefore wrong to resort to politicizing it.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga Is A Writer And Social Commentator Based In Nairobi
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