A fire that killed nine students and injured several others at a girls’ school in Kenya at the weekend was started deliberately, officials say.
The incident at Moi Girls School in the capital, Nairobi, “was not an accident, it was arson”, Kenya’s Education Minister Fred Matiang’i said today.
There has been a spate of similar attacks on schools in different parts of Kenya, he said.
The attacks were linked to disputes over senior appointments in schools.
“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,” the Education Minister told a press conference in Nairobi.
Similar fires, said to be related to staff positions that can often bring financial rewards, were reported at schools in the coastal city of Mombasa and the western city of Kisumu.
