TSC recommends severe punishment for perpetrators of arson in schools

By Peter Ochieng

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is calling for stiffer consequences against perpetrators of cases of arson in schools across the country.

Several incidents of fire have been reported in a dozen schools, over two weeks after schools reopened for the third term.

TSC Chief Executive Officer (TSC) Nancy Macharia in a circular to TSC officials across the country, spoke on the need to ensure that learners are safe at all times.

"Engage law enforcement agencies in investigating cases of arson and indiscipline in schools with a view to recommending administrative and legal action to the perpetrators," she said.

The move comes days after a fire incident led to the death of 21 school boys at the Endarasha Hillside academy in Kieni, Nyeri County, which left several others injured. The incident was initially linked to an electric fault, but Kenya Power ruled it out.

“Based on the findings of the preliminary analysis of our protection system, from the metre box to the substation where the medium voltage line serving the school emanates from, we have ascertained there was no link between the cause of the fire and any fault on our network as alleged in sections of media reports,” Kenya Power said this week.

“We have ascertained there was no link between the cause of the fire and any fault on our network as alleged in sections of media reports. As a company, electrical safety is of utmost priority in all our operations. Upon receiving the news of this fire incident, our team in Nyeri switched off the power supply to the school as a precautionary measure while handling the fire incident.”

Kenya Power maintained that power supply to the school was very stable, at the time of the incident. "The line supplying the school is a low voltage line from Mweiga sub-station. At the time when the fire incident occurred, supply was stable on this line with no reported incidents.”

The cause of the fire is still unknown.