Endarasha Fire Victims’ Families Demand Truth One Year On
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen mentioned the issue lightly. But the parents are of the opinion that his statement made no real breakthrough.
The majority of them named their children brilliant and ambitious. They were ambitious students with the dreams of becoming doctors, engineers, and leaders. Photo/ KBC Digital
BY Juliet Jerotich
Parents of the 21 pupils who perished in the Endarasha fire are still waiting for answers one year later. The tragedy occurred in September 2024 at Hillside Academy in Nyeri, where a dormitory blaze claimed the lives of the young learners.
The families have complained that they have endured a dozen painful months in limbo. They blame the government for procrastination in coming out with the findings of inquiries into how the fire occurred. They claim deafening silence from the state and school has only deepened their wounds.
Certain parents claim they never got postmortem reports for their children. They argue that the denial of plain information makes them feel abandoned and forgotten. To them, the opacity has been as agony as the mishap itself.
The relatives of those who perished in the fire say only the release of the investigative report can restore a sense of justice. They want to determine if the fire was a tragic accident or an arson attack. Truth for them is the first step towards healing.
The majority of them named their children brilliant and ambitious. They were ambitious students with the dreams of becoming doctors, engineers, and leaders. Parents allege that the ambitions were reduced to ashes on the night of the fire with boundless grief.
At a recent Jukwaa la Usalama meeting in Nyeri, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen mentioned the issue lightly. But the parents are of the opinion that his statement made no real breakthrough. They opine that talk is cheap unless the government publishes the final report.
Parents also fault the school for relocating after the disaster. They say there has been very little effort to support the grieving families, either financially or psychologically. The majority of them feel abandoned, as if their children’s lives no longer matter.
It has been a year, and the families are united in their demand: they want the truth. Only full disclosure, they believe, can impose responsibility and help prevent such disasters from happening again in the future.
For now, they just go about grieving while waiting for the government to finally take action. To them, they can only recover if the truth regarding what happened during that evening comes out. Their sores will remain open until that moment arrives.
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