Same script: Ignored school safety manual

As grief-stricken parents of Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil are struggling to come to the realities of a pain that many other families across Kenya have always felt, yet always forgotten once task-force committees are formed to investigate, the nation is once again plunged into a familiar cycle of mourning.

Similar frantic questions are being asked about how the fire started, why the learners could not escape and even who locked the doors.

The regulations to prevent the catastrophe that befell the Meline Waithera dormitory block have existed for nearly two decades, resting inside a 130-page government document known as The Safety Standards Manual for Schools in Kenya.

The tragedy that has happened, like other fire tragedies that have happened in the past, seems to have been a predictable, devastating consequence of an administrative failure that failed to turn written policy into reality.

The Safety Standards Manual is anchored in the Basic Education Act of 2013. The document is a legally binding framework. However, the compliance gaps are the reason for the recurring vulnerabilities of Kenyan boarding schools.

The manual clearly indicates that every single dormitory must feature at least two wide doors located at opposite ends of the building. Crucially, these doors must open outwards.

In many dormitories in boarding schools, the doors are frequently locked from the outside or padlocked entirely at night under the guise of security or preventing student sneaks, which, however, turns a dormitory into a cage.

Often in a panic, the crushing weight of hundreds of fleeing students ends up in a stampede if a door opens inward and self-locks the exit.

The manual indicates that the windows must never have permanent metallic grills or welded reinforcement bars. They are legally required to open from the inside so they can serve as active, secondary emergency escape routes when primary pathways are blocked by fire.

However, driven by fears of theft or student indiscipline, many schools across the country have welded heavy iron bars onto dormitory windows, sealing off the only alternative lifelines the students have.

As per the law, the space between beds must be a minimum of 1.2 metres and the central pathway cutting through the dormitory must be at least two meters wide.

The spaces should be kept completely free of boxes, lockers, or laundry baskets. Triple-decker beds are strictly outlawed.

However, the pressure of 100 per cent transition policies has forced many schools to cram beds into confined spaces such that when a fire breaks out at night, a narrow, cluttered pathway turns a routine evacuation into a dangerous obstacle course. 

The manual strictly mandates that comprehensive evacuation maps and escape routes must be visibly posted at every entrance and exit of all school buildings, including classrooms, laboratories, and dormitories.

These maps are legally required to provide visual directions guiding students toward designated, clearly marked Fire Assembly Points on the school grounds.

The policy also binds school administrations to conduct realistic fire and emergency evacuation drills at least twice every single school term. The exercises are legally mandated to involve all teaching staff, boarding matrons, and non-teaching personnel, including cooks and security guards.

The manual dictates that functional, regularly serviced fire extinguishers and fire blankets must be securely mounted at intervals of not less than 10 meters along all school corridors, with mandatory placements immediately adjacent to high-risk zones such as kitchens, laboratories, and dormitory master cubicles.

On September 11, 2024, following the horrific Hillside Endarasha Academy fire in Nyeri that claimed 21 lives, the Ministry of Education issued a fierce nationwide directive.

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba warned that the Ministry was launching a massive, multi-agency countrywide safety audit.

He warned that school principals, boarding masters, matrons, and Ministry Quality Assurance and Standards officers would face immediate, personal criminal prosecution for negligence if they cleared non-compliant blocks.

The crackdown initially worked, but waned due to pushback from secondary school stakeholders.