At least 17 pupils killed in Kenya school fire

At least 17 pupils have been killed after a fire torched Hillside Endarasha Academy, a boarding primary school in Kenya’s Nyeri county.

The inferno occurred late Thursday night and has left 14 wounded.

There are fears that the death toll could rise as over a dozen others have been taken to hospital with severe burns.

Resila Onyango, spokesperson for the Kenya national police service, said the bodies were “burnt beyond recognition”.

Onyango added that the cause of the fire is unknown, but that the service “will update the public when we know more”.

More than 150 pupils were said to be in the dormitory when it caught fire at around midnight local time, police added.

Local reports attributed the swift spread of the fire to the timber the school is made from.

One of the dormitories housing the students was razed, killing 16 in one fell swoop.

President William Ruto called the fire “horrific” and “devastating”, and ordered an investigation.

“Those responsible will be held to account,” Ruto said on Friday in a statement.

“The Government under the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of the National Government is mobilising all the necessary resources to support the affected families.”

The Kenya Red Cross said it is providing psychosocial support and has set up a tracing desk at the school.

There have been a series of school fires in Kenya in recent years, with many of them turning out to be arson.

In September 2017, nine students were killed in a fire at a school in Nairobi that the government attributed to arson.

In 2001, 58 schoolboys were killed in a dormitory fire at Kyanguli Secondary School outside Nairobi. In 2012, eight students were killed at a school in Homa Bay County in western Kenya.