21 boys confirmed dead in Kenya school inferno

A total of 21 boys were confirmed dead on Saturday after a blaze tore through a school dormitory in central Kenya, a tragedy that has raised questions about safety standards at educational establishments nationwide.

And after night fell, another fire broke out at a girls' school also in the centre of the country, with conflicting reports about injuries.

Earlier Saturday, the nation's top prosecutor said he had instructed police to look into whether the deadly inferno at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri county had been caused by negligence or recklessness.

The flames engulfed a boys' dormitory at the school around midnight on Thursday as more than 150 pupils aged between nine and 13 were sleeping.

Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said a total of 19 bodies had been recovered from the site and another two had died in hospital.

Of the total 156 boys in the dorm at the time, 139 had now been accounted for, either at home or in hospital, he added.

"It is a catastrophe beyond our imagination," Mwaura said at a press briefing.

The charred bodies of the victims, which police had said were burnt beyond recognition, were found in the dormitory, now a blackened shell with its corrugated iron roof completely collapsed.

Homicide teams and forensic experts stepped up their investigations at the school on Saturday, with DNA tests to be conducted to identify the victims

- 'Serious concerns' about safety -

Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor said postmortems would begin on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, another fire broke out on Saturday night at Isiolo Girls High School, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) to the northeast.

Isiolo County communications director Hussein Salesa told AFP that two or three buildings had caught fire. "There are some injuries but we cannot confirm the exact figure at the moment."

National police spokeswoman Resila Onyango said in a statement the flames had been contained with help from the army, and that there had been "no injuries" among students and staff.

Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga has instructed police to investigate what caused the Endarasha fire and "assess whether or not the tragedy may have resulted from negligence and/or recklessness of any responsibility holders", his office said in a statement.

"Any person found culpable towards the fire tragedy shall be expediently taken through the due process of a criminal trial."

The blaze has highlighted the issue of safety at schools in Kenya, after numerous similar disasters over the years.

Kenya's National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated the dorm was "overcrowded, in violation of safety standards.

"This incident raises serious concerns about children's rights to safety in educational institutions," the NGO Vocal Africa said in a statement on X.

President William Ruto has declared three days of national mourning from Monday after what he described as an "unfathomable tragedy".

He has called for a full investigation into the disaster and vowed that "all relevant persons and bodies will be held to account".

- 'We want our children' -

Pope Francis said he was "deeply saddened" at the loss of young life and expressed his "spiritual closeness to all who are suffering the effects of this calamity, especially the injured and the families who grieve".

Many families had been waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones, with one mother at the school angrily crying: "We don't want the food donations. We want our children."

The Kenya Red Cross was offering psychological counselling sessions to traumatised children and relatives, setting up white tents in fields outside the school gates.

Muchai Kihara, 56, said he was lucky to find his 12-year-old son Stephen Gachingi alive after rushing to the school around 1:00 am on Friday.

"I cannot begin to imagine what he went through," he told AFP.

"I am happy he is alive but he had some injuries at the back of his head and the smoke had affected his eyes."