As students continue with indiscipline across the country, another school in Kirinyaga County has been set on fire by suspected students.
Following the 4am incident at Karumandi Boys secondary school in Kirinyaga East Sub- County, five students suspected to set the dormitory on fire have been arrested.
According to the area OCPD Antony Mbogo, those arrested were four Form threes and a Form One.
The Police Chief said after the school Principal reported the fire, he immediately dispatched his officers to the institution and found a three litre Jerrican believed to have been used to bring petrol.
He said the dormitory was already burnt down completely when his officers arrived and found that property belonging to the students who were boarding there was in ashes.
“Our immediate investigations led my officers to suspect the five students whom we arrested and are at our police station in Kianyaga undergoing further interrogations before we decide the next course of action,” he said.
The officer blamed parents for pestering their students instead of providing guidance after staying at home for over nine months when Covid pandemic broke out leading to closure of schools in the country.
It could not be immediately established if the school will continue with studies or was closed down after the dawn incident.
This now becomes the second school to experience torching of dormitories by students after Karia which was closed down indefinitely on Monday morning.
Suspected arsonists torched a dormitory at the school on January 17 and repeated again on Jan 31, leading to the premature closure which saw 460 students being sent home.
At the same time a Form Three student from Rwambiti secondary school who was said to have assaulted three teachers yesterday morning has been arraigned in court.
He was however released on Sh 20,000 bond until March 3 when his case will be further mentioned at the Gichugu Law Courts.
The student was reported to have attacked the first teacher who wanted him to produce a mobile phone he was using while the lesson was going on.
Other two teachers who rushed to rescue their colleagues were also attacked by the vicious students who were said to have been under the influence of drugs.
Meanwhile, Withur Boys secondary school missed being torched by a whisker following a fouled plan said to have been hatched by the students to raze the school.
Nyando police boss Leonard Matete said residents salvaged a boys’ dormitory that had been set ablaze by the students from being razed to the ground.
Six mattresses had already caught fire by the time rescuers put the fire off with three students suffering burns from the inferno.
The fire is said to have started at around 4am as the students were going for morning preps emanating from Obama dormitory in the school.
Residents who had responded to the alarm saved mattresses from being torched but investigations have been launched into the incident.
It is alleged that the students had mooted the plan for a long time over claims that they were being given substandard meals.
By Irungu Mwangi
