Police in Kenya have been allowed by the court to detain a schoolgirl who is alleged to have deliberately caused the fire outbreak at a girls school in the capital Nairobi.
The fire outbreak at the Moi Girls School killed nine schoolgirls leaving several injured. Detaining the schoolgirl is to help the prosecutors conclude investigations.
When the the Form One student appeared at the Milimani juvenile court on Wednesday, she was not charged but police have said she could be charged for murder, arson and assault once investigations are over.
Kenya’s education minister Fred Matiangi said on Monday that arson was to blame for the incident.
“Most of the investigations are done and I can tell you unequivocally – I have been briefed by the police – that it was not an accident,” Matiangi told a press conference in Nairobi.
This is not the first time such a disaster has been recorded in Kenya with 58 schoolboys dieing in a similar dormitory fire in 2001 at Kyanguli Secondary School outside Nairobi.
Another eight students died at a school in Homa Bay County in western Kenya in 2012.
Source: Africafeeds.com
