By Correspondent
WAJIR COUNTY- An inferno that broke out at Wajir girls secondary school in Wajir county this evening has been contained after concerted efforts of fire fighters and police who arrived at the institution on time helped in putting out the fire.
Sources say that a mattress in one of cubicles of a newly built dormitory at the school caught fire but was noticed before it spread to other nearby cubicles.
The students are said to have been evacuated immediately the fire outbreak and no one has been injured in the incident.
Amateur videos taken from the school showed smoke bellowing from inside the affected dormitory.
It is not immediately clear who torched the mattress.
Authorities and the school administration did not comment on the matter.
Over the last few weeks, cases of school fires have been on a sharp rise, with the worrying trend now leading Cabinet secretaries George Magoha and Fred Matiang’i to call for re-introduction of radical disciplinary measures including caning of schools.
“We need to introduce caning back in schools like yesterday…do not expect our teachers to do the impossible,” said Prof. Magoha.
“We must discipline our children and we must insist on some things we cannot create a society of animals sasa kazi yetu ni kujenga mashule kazi yao iwe kuchoma its tough love our children must understand one thing that it takes sacrifice from parents to get these things,” said Dr. Matiang’i.
The CSs say the ban on corporal punishment denied teachers a proven method of dealing with indiscipline in schools
“I am not a subscriber of those things of human rights of the child, kwa sababu Bibilia inasema spare the rod and spoil the child mimi nataka tuanze kuzungumza how we will discipline our children,” added Matiang’i.
Key among the proposals made by CS Magoha to address the widespread unrest in schools is doing away with boarding schools and allowing learners to study as day-scholars
“Which human rights are those when you want to burn your colleagues in the halls, and that will lead to the talks of whether we still need boarding schools in the country,” said Magoha.
Maranda High School is the latest to be closed again after a dormitory complex was torched down Sunday.
The incident comes barely a week after Form Four students were sent home indefinitely due to allegations that they threatened to burn down the institution.
