A girl’s testimony to her mom

Thursday May 28th has been one of the most terribly sad days in Kenya so far this year.

The news of a fire tragedy that killed 16 girls at a Gilgil school is very disturbing and unsettling.

As investigations continue, one only hopes the truth will eventually emerge.

In past fire tragedies the causes have not been much highlighted though safety measures in boarding schools have been published by the relevant ministry but with no real proof of enforcement in a country where we rank very lowly in attaining and actioning real enforcement measures.

Many parents & guardians and other Kenyans, who send their children to schools daily or to boarding schools at terms’ commencement annually for the school tenure, are much distressed and disappointed to say the least.

For instance, investigations in a past fire tragedy in  a famous girls’ school revealed that a naughty girl, a brat indeed, worked with others to start a fire that killed several other innocent girls.

In other incidents, negligence has been identified among some school administrators including boarding mistresses, masters and matrons who have been said to have locked students and pupils inside dormitories unattended well enough for dangers to be fast and easily identified.

Commendably, some of measure put in place to fight panic stampedes in case of dangers and emergency leaving of dormitories has been a requirement for all doors to be installed to open outwards, not inwards, to allow easy and fast escapes.

Yet, increasingly and in the future parents will continue demanding the assurance that their children in schools, (especially boarding ones) are safe, secure and not in distress over safety concerns if the appeal for taking children to formal schools will have to be sustained.

Home schools despite being a bit expensive and with own unique challenges, may now and in the future become the best safety and security bet for the learners and their parents.

During an early morning media interview on this sad day, a mother gave a moving testimony on how God saved her daughter.

According to the mother, the girl on realizing that she was trapped, decided to throw down her suitcase from the second floor where she was so that she could jump and luckily land on the suitcase to easy the fall force.

And sure enough, she landed on her suitcase and survived.

According to the mother, she only had slight pains which she (the mother) assured would be investigated by medics the soonest they would reach hospital.