Kenya prepared to conduct DNA testing on Monday to identify the 21 young victims of a school dormitory fire last week. Thursday’s blaze has highlighted the issue of safety at schools in Kenya, after numerous similar incidents over the years, many of them deadly. The East African nation has also declared three days of mourning.
DNA testing was due to begin in Kenya on Monday to help identify the boys who lost their lives in a deadly school dormitory blaze last week.
The nation has also declared three days of mourning for the 21 young victims of the grim tragedy that has raised fresh concerns about safety standards at Kenyan schools.
The children perished after flames engulfed their dormitory at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri county in central Kenya as they were sleeping late on Thursday night.
The cause of the blaze is not yet known, but homicide investigators and forensic experts were at the school on Saturday, while media were barred from the site.
The bodies of victims, which police had said were burnt beyond recognition, were still in the dormitory, now a blackened shell with its corrugated iron roof completely collapsed.
According to government spokesman Isaac Mwaura, nineteen bodies were found in the charred ruins of the building, while another two died in hospital, but 17 were still unaccounted for.
Kenya’s National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated that the dorm was “overcrowded, in violation of safety standards”.
The blaze has highlighted the issue of school safety in Kenya, after numerous similar disasters over the years.
In a statement from the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” at the loss of young life and expressed his “spiritual closeness to all who are suffering the effects of this calamity, especially the injured and the families who grieve”.
On Friday, tensions were running high among families gathered at the school, anxious for news of their missing children.
Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor has said postmortems would begin on Tuesday.
