By Habil Onyango
The Government has directed the National Government Administration Office and the Ministry of Education to conduct an assessment of the state of the facilities within Schools
Interior Permanent Secretary Dr. Raymond Omollo said the directive was aimed at containing the spate of recent fire outbreaks in schools and safeguarding the learners.
Omolo said the exercise was ongoing and once completed, the report will give insight on the infrastructure and measures to be undertaken to improve emergency response systems in schools.
“Recently, we have had incidences of fire breakouts in a number of our Schools. The Government has already begun assessments on the state of our facilities in Schools so that we avoid more incidences of fire outbreaks like it has been the case,” said the PS.
“My state department is leading the coordination of that assessment across the Country working together with the Ministry of Education, the exercise is still going on and out of the exercise we will have more awareness on what action to be taken in our Schools,” he said.
The PS expresses concern over fire incidents which usually occur in the third term ahead of the national examinations in secondary schools.
He assured Kenyans that the Ministry of Education, the School heads, and the Directors of Education were following such cases to create a good atmosphere for the candidates.
According to a report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, there has been a significant increase in incidents of school fires and accidents over the past 10 years. Between 2010 and 2020, over 1,000 cases of school fires were reported.
The root causes of these incidents are multifaceted, encompassing both human and environmental factors.
Poor infrastructure, lack of proper safety equipment, inadequate training of staff and students, and psychological stress among students have all been identified as contributing factors. Addressing these issues requires a holistic and strategic approach.
In September, nine schools had been destroyed by fire according to the Police.
The schools included one academy and eight secondary schools where in one of the incidents under probe, 21 pupils were killed and 20 injured at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri on September 5.
