“I found out that there had been a fire at the school after I turned up for work. The other traders told me. When I got to the school they told me my son (Peter Mwanzia) was among those who were missing, then they told me he was dead. When I insisted on seeing him the volunteers refused. They said I wouldn’t be able to recognise him. They were right.”
How does one live with that picture? “You just keep waking up. What can I say? It’s just God.”
But her son didn’t die as a result of some inexplicable act of God. He died because of what Justice Sergon described as “gross negligence.”
There were no fire extinguishers in the dorm and no emergency door despite a previous attempt to burn the head teacher’s office on account of cancelled Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam results the year before and the “regular” expulsion of students of account of unpaid fees.
The dorm made for 60 students had 134 and most critically, the school management failed to search it for petrol, “despite a strong smell.” They also failed to report the acts of vandalism that led up to the arson attack to the police.
“A prudent administration and or Board of Management could as well have closed the school by sending students home as a whole in order to guarantee the students’ safety and the school property,” Justice Sergon adjudged.
But there was blame to be shared, he found, the Ministry of Education not having had any had any standards in place on the construction of dormitories and for failing to act swiftly in the wake of the unprecedented tragedy to prevent a similar occurrence.
“The government took almost seven years before releasing its first edition of a safety standards manual for schools in Kenya, 2008 with guidelines for the construction of school dormitories.”
Jesus did however ask, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”
It took the Judiciary 14 years to hear and determine the Kyanguli parents’ petition for compensation. Which would mean, it took each of the seven witnesses – both for the prosecution and defence – two years to testify.
Fifteen years and the promise of a couple hundred thousand shillings later; it’s evident that for Wayua, Wambua and Ndung’e at least, time hasn’t healed all wounds.
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