Several bodies of Hillside Endarasha academy’s fire tragedy yet to be identified

𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐃𝐍𝐀 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬

Parents whose children perished at the Hillside Endarasha academy will have to wait a little longer, as DNA samples for the 19 bodies, retrieved from the ill-fated dormitory got underway.

Parents who had not been able to account for the whereabouts of their children thronged the Naromoru Level 4 hospital mortuary Monday, even as collection of DNA samples on the bodies kicked off.

Nyeri County Commissioner and acting Central Region Commissioner Pius Murugu told KNA the process of identifying bodies and matching their DNA with the parents will require painstaking efforts owing to the state of the bodies.

He also confirmed that out of the 164 pupils who were sleeping in the doomed dormitory on Thursday night last week before it caught fire, only 19 perished, while two are in the hospital receiving specialised treatment.

The administrator has also set the records straight, confirming that all the 164 boys who were in the dormitory have been accounted for.

Earlier on, the number of boys who had been sleeping in the dorm had been placed at 156. The school had a total of 824 pupils.

“What is currently going on is the matching of the DNA samples, which is quite critical due to the complexity required in analysing the data. We have also confirmed that the number of pupils who perished was 19, while those still hospitalised stand at two. We were also to call all the parents and find the whereabouts of all the boys who were in the dormitory, and we have established that the total number of boys sleeping that night was 164,” said Murugu.