17 students killed in Kenya elementary school fire as officials say 70 remain unaccounted for

(CNN) — At least 17 students have been killed and 14 injured following a fire in an elementary school dormitory in central Kenya, while a further 70 children remain unaccounted for, authorities said Friday.

The inferno occurred late Thursday at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Kieni, in the country’s Nyeri county, Resila Onyango, a spokesperson for the Kenya National Police Service said. She added their bodies had been “burnt beyond recognition.”

“The cause of fire is unknown at this time but we will update the public when we know more,” Onyango told CNN.

Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said in a statement Friday that the fire broke out at around midnight in the male dormitory of the mixed private boarding school, adding that more than 150 boys were in the dormitory at the time.

Kenya’s education ministry said 824 students – 402 boys and 422 girls – were enrolled in the school. It added that 156 of the boys and around 160 girls were boarders while the rest were day scholars.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said that 70 children are still unaccounted for.

“We still have 70 kids that are unaccounted – that does not mean they are perished or they are injured. The word is that they are unaccounted for. We are praying and hoping for the best,” he said at a press conference Friday.

Gachagua said that some parents, hearing the news of the fire, came to the school to collect their children without informing school officials.

“I am appealing to each and every parent who took their child from here to report… so that we know where that child is,” he said.

Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday offered his condolences. Describing the incident as “devastating news,” Ruto said “our thoughts are with the families of the children who have lost their lives in the fire tragedy at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County,” in a post on X.

“I instruct relevant authorities to thoroughly investigate this horrific incident. Those responsible will be held to account,” his post continued, adding his government was “mobilizing all the necessary resources to support the affected families.”

Distraught parents converged on the school Friday morning, waiting anxiously for news as authorities searched for bodies and survivors.

The Kenya Red Cross also posted a statement Friday, saying it would provide “psychosocial support services to the pupils, teachers and affected families.”

The statement added that 11 children have so far been taken to hospital, with the area of the fire cordoned off by police.

Kenya Red Cross, alongside a “multi-agency response team,” is currently on the ground responding add has set up a tracing desk at the school, the statement continued.

School fires – often attributed to arson and overcrowding – are relatively common in Kenya, where similar tragedies have led to multiple casualties in the past.

In 2017, at least nine students died when a boarding school in the capital Nairobi erupted in flames. The government said at the time that the fire “was not an accident” but an “arson,” and part of a rising trend of deliberate school fires. From 2015 to 2016 around 350 schools had caught fire, according to official figures reported by Reuters.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

CNN’s Nimi Princewill and Eve Brennan contributed to this report.

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