Two leaders from Nyamira County have termed the recent fire incidents in several schools from Gusii region ‘unfortunate' and challenged the Ministry of Education to investigate the matter and table its findings.
At least three schools from the region among them Itierio Boys, Naikuru Mixed and St Andrews Kaggwa Primary, have experienced fire outbreaks which have seen property worth millions reduced to ashes even as their causes remain a mystery.
And now Nyamira woman representative Alice Chae has urged teachers to be on the alert to curb such incidents which she said could escalate and lead to loss of lives.
“I want to condemn the school fires in the strongest terms possible. The incidents are unfortunate and need to be probed thoroughly. We have said it before and we now want action from the Ministry of Education,” she said.
“It’s sad that in a period of less than a week, several schools can experience a similar incident yet the custodians are not keen to show us the way. We want the ministry to do proper investigations,” she added.
Nairobi based lawyer Steve Mogaka on his part faulted teachers for being reluctant in taking precautions, and warned that if the matter is not solved, could lead to deaths in future.
“We don’t want to hear cases of children dying out of incidents that could be handled by teachers. As teachers, you need to be alert always and iron out outstanding issues with students to avoid unwarranted strikes and fire out breaks,” he said.