Kenyan relatives left waiting and hoping

Relatives have been left in limbo

By Muliro Telewa in Nairobi

The students who perished in a fire at their school dormitory on Monday morning may be buried in a mass grave due to the problems of identification facing the parents, say police and the pathologists.

Until a complete list is provided the parent will keep hoping that his son is one of the missing; which is very sad

Father of a school pupil

When I arrived at Kyanguli Secondary School, 65km south-east of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, I found more than 100 parents and relatives who had waited for more than 12 hours for confirmation from the school administration and police if their children were alive or dead.

Confusion over the number of dead students started on Tuesday after a roll call was conducted and it was discovered that 68 students were missing. Only 58 bodies have been recovered.

The government officially declared 10 students missing.

No list

Ben Makau, the father of a form three student, told me that the school administration has not provided a complete list of the dead and the missing, making it difficult for relatives to make necessary funeral arrangements.

The fire blazed through the dormitory at night

"Until a complete list is provided the parent will keep hoping that his son is one of the missing; which is very sad," he said.

Machakos District Commissioner Hussein Dado said the Government would exhaustively investigate the cause of the fire and assured parents that the government will assist the parents financialy.

He however declined to commit the government over the issue of compensation.

DNA tests

In Nairobi, where the bodies were transferred, Government Chief pathologist Kirasi Olumbe said the government may consider conducting DNA tests to identify the dead.

Speaking after concluding post mortem examinations on 58 bodies, he said he had identified only one.

The Machakos police boss, Mr Julius Narangwi, earlier told the BBC that parents will decide how their children will be buried, in the event of failure of identification.

In similar disasters in the past, the dead were buried in mass graves.

Criticism

While all the Government officers I spoke to declined to commit the government to compensation, one said in future parents may be asked to buy life insurance for their children.

Many people who visited Kyanguli Secondary School to console the parents accused the school administration of failing to provide security for their children.

Red Cross co-ordinator at the school, Ms Vera Makuti, said: "If the building had big doors and windows without grills, I believe many boys would have escaped the fire before the roof fell on them."