At least 18 young children have died and 27 others have been hospitalised after a fire ripped through the dormitory at their primary school in central Kenya overnight on Thursday.
Late on Friday, the death toll went up after one student died of their injuries at the hospital.
Police said the blaze at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri county broke out just after midnight on Friday, engulfing the dormitory where more than 150 boys between the ages of 10 and 14 were sleeping.
Since most of the school’s buildings are made using wooden planks, the fire spread very fast.
With at least 70 children unaccounted for, local authorities expect the death toll to rise, although some of them might have gone home with families for the night.
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Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has urged community members who may have sheltered some of the children to bring them back so that they can be accounted for.
The school, which has 824 students, is located in the country’s central highlands, 200 kilometres north of the capital, Nairobi.
Many families have been left waiting anxiously to be reunited with their children, with one parent saying they had been given very little information.
The government has promised to mobilise all available resources to support the families of those involved.
Source: Africa news.com
