• Nana as observed by Justice Stella Mutuku, was a troubled girl. She hated the school deeply.
• Nana wanted a transfer, something that her parents did not seem to give a listening ear to.
Image: William Wanyoike
Fourteen-year-old Nana was a troubled girl and she deeply hated Moi Girls High School in Nairobi. She said the toilets were filthy and she hated being forced to clean them.
Nana (not her real name) begged her parents for a transfer for many reasons, but they did nothing.
So on September 1, four days after the third term opened in 2017, she set her Kabarnet dormitory on fire. Ten students, her fellows, died.
Those killed in the fire were Alakiir Malong, Asiko Nanga, Esther Neema, Marcia Otieno, Nancy Wamuthere, Aziz Owuor, Whitney Kerubo, Hannah Timado, Mokaya Chengo and Leah Wambui.
Justice Stella Mutuku on Thursday convicted Nana for manslaughter. She said her behaviour portrayed "a child crying for attention".
She said the prosecution did not prove malice aforethought, so she could not convict Nana of murder as charged.
"Consequently, I find her not guilty of the 10 counts of murder she is facing. She is hereby acquitted of the 10 counts of murder but I find her guilty of 10 counts of manslaughter," Mutuku said.
She will be sentenced on January 4 next year.
"She seemed unprepared for a public school like the one she landed in. She expressed her frustrations to her friends and classmates using WhatsApp chats and even threatened to burn the school," the judge said.
Nana set her own bed on fire and it spread.
"I am alive to the evidence that no one saw the person who set the dormitory on fire but there is uncontroverted evidence that the fire started on the accused person's bed," Justice Stella Mutuku said.
It is not known what was used to start the fire, maybe hand sanitiser and matchsticks, or anything else.
But traces of petrol or petroleum products were detected after examination of the ashes from sections near the washrooms, the judge said.
"I am not able to attribute the presence of petrol in the dormitory to the accused without any evidence to that effect, but a fire did start on her bed," the judge said.
Mutuku said it was a small fire and could have been managed and put out, but it was late into the night.
"Everyone was asleep and unaware of what was happening. On waking up, the girls just panicked and started running helter-skelter in an attempt to escape."
The trial has been delayed and the judge said it was an emotional case. Often the court had to adjourn to give witnesses, especially the parents of the deceased students, time to compose themselves during the testimony.
"This also affected one prosecution counsel who could not control herself and who broke down during the trial when we had an emotional witness testifying," Mutuku said.
Moi Girls is on 52 acres between Joseph Kang'ethe and Kibera Drive. Kabarnet dormitory had about 354 students. The exact number could not be ascertained from school records.
Evidence on record indicates Nana was admitted to Moi Girls, not through the normal intake, but through a request made through intervention by some officials at Jogoo House. This evidence was revealed by the school principal.
Whether or not Nana meant her talk of burning, it turned serious when she carried it out, the judge said.
Her hatred for Moi Girls led her to start the fire not to kill her classmates but as a desperate attempt to get herself transferred by any means.
Mutuku said her aim may have been just to cause a fire and burn the building without hurting anyone. But she didn't consider that the building had two floors and there were certainly going to be casualties.
"The subject, in her naivety, may have overlooked the consequences of her actions. Her attempt to wake some of her friends up was aimed at rescuing them from the fire," the judge said.
The prosecution called 42 witnesses. They included students of Moi Girls and Nana's friends.
There were also members of the school administration including the principal.
Evidence on record from a mother of one of the victims revealed that the accused had a matchbox and one day she demonstrated to her classmates how she could cast spells using the matchbox.
The accused on the day of the fire prayed before going to bed, asking God for forgiveness for what she was about to do that night.
But in her defence, the accused denied demonstrating a spell using a matchbox or that she showed it to her friends.
She also denied belonging to a cult as alleged by her friends. She denied starting the fire.
Judge Mutuku also dismissed claims of her being an Illuminati, saying there was no proof that the accused practised demon worship or that she had joined Illuminati.
"This court was not given evidence to show what Illuminati is and why it is bad to belong to it or whether it is associated with devil worship. This is a court of law and is governed by law and procedure," the judge said.
(Edited by V. Graham)