A deadly fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, central Kenya, has killed at least 16 students and left others injured after flames tore through a dormitory at the boarding school.
Footage filmed on Thursday shows crowds of students, parents and relatives gathering at the school gates and grounds in the aftermath of the blaze, some embracing one another in grief while others were seen confronting authorities.
Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Dr Ahmed Idris, speaking at the site, said his organisation was focused on supporting bereaved families through the identification process.
“As the process of identifying the children who unfortunately lost their lives is being undertaken, we help, and we continue to support their parents, their relatives, their friends, in that process of grieving, so the psycho support will be here in the next couple of days, to support the families until the time of the burials,” he said.
Idris described the scale of the tragedy in stark terms, calling for the grief of affected families to be shielded from political interference.
“Any disaster where 16 people lose their lives is extremely sad. It is particularly horrifying when there are 16 people who are young, who are children, and our request to everyone is to allow and facilitate the parents and the affected to mourn without any political elements,” he added.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the blaze, as parents of students and Kenyans on social media renewed calls for scrutiny over fire safety standards and emergency preparedness in the country’s boarding schools. Enditem
Source: Viory
