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The Government has pledged to cover medical and funeral expenses for the 21 pupils who died in the Endarasha Academy fire tragedy last Thursday.
Nyeri County Commissioner and acting Central Region Commissioner, Pius Murugu, announced this as part of the governmentβs efforts to assist parents who lost their sons in the tragic incident.
βThe government has taken the initiative to foot all medical bills and also provide burial expenses. We are also planning to have a memorial service for all the victims before we dispatch the bodies,β he said, adding, βWe are still continuing to offer psychological and psychosocial support to the parents and everybody else affected by the tragedy.β
Murugu confirmed that out of the 164 pupils who were sleeping in the dormitory, only 19 perished, while two others died while receiving specialised treatment in the hospital.
The county administrator confirmed that all parents who lost their children in the fire had presented themselves at the Naromoru Level 4 hospital mortuary for the process of body identification.
The decision to move the bodies to the county mortuary was to expedite the process of DNA analysis and avert overwhelming staff at the Nyeri County Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Investigators working at the school are yet to crack the riddle of what really caused the fire after Kenya Power ruled out an electric fault on Tuesday.
After conducting comprehensive investigations at the school power connections, it was established that the cause of the fire lay elsewhere.
Nyeri Kenya Power Business Manager Duncan Machuka said after conducting comprehensive investigations at the school power connections, it had been established that the cause of the fire lay elsewhere.
βBased on the findings of the preliminary analysis of our protection system, from the meter box to the substation where the medium voltage line serving the school emanates from, we have ascertained there was no link between the cause of the fire and any fault on our network as alleged in sections of media reports,β read part of his statement.
With this conclusion, attention now shifts to the power regulator, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra), which is responsible for any power beyond the meter.
Machuka told the press his team will continue working hand in hand with other investigators at the site to come to the bottom of what caused the blaze.
βI am aware our regulator (Epra) is on the ground doing investigations, and we are working with them to ascertain that. We havenβt conclusively gone beyond that jurisdiction area, but we have ascertained that there was no link between the fire and our system,β said the official.
Preliminary speculations had zeroed in on a possible power failure, but a press statement from the Kenya Power has ruled that.
