DOWN MEMORY LANE: Revisiting Kyanguli fire tragedy 23 years on

Monday, March 25 marks exactly 23 years since a dormitory fire killed 67 boys at Kyanguli Secondary School in Machakos, one of the biggest fire death tolls in the country to date.

Memories of the shocking act of arson believed to have been masterminded by two 16-year-old students of the school still linger in the minds of some Kenyans to date.

The school stuck some 50kms from Nairobi, rarely made news until the tragic events of the night of March 25, 2001, when a group of disgruntled students set a dormitory on fire.

The arsonists dosed the iron-roofed house with petrol in the dead of the night and set it ablaze, engulfing the dormitory that housed over 100 students aged between 15 and 19 in a fierce fire.

When it was all over, 67 boys lay dead, burnt beyond recognition. Seventy escaped unhurt while 28 were injured.

The plan

Months before the heinous act, there had been signs of trouble at the school but the administration apparently failed to probe the matter after failed arson attempts on the principal's office and the school library.

Some survivors said some students were angered by the school’s demands for payment of fee arrears and the cancellation of the previous year’s KCSE results by the examination council over alleged cheating.

Some learners blamed the school administration for the proble.

Others said a hostile student-teacher relationship occasioned by alleged heavy-handedness was a probable motive.

"There was a misunderstanding between the administration and the students. They (the students) had grudges," a 19-year-old survivor who slept in a different dormitory, about 100 metres from the ill-fated ‘upper house’ said.

Other students cited poor-quality meals as a motive.

A day to the incident, leaflets were circulated in the school calling for a strike.

Its authors wanted the principal to step down but few students went along with the idea.

"I think it's because we went to classes,” another survivor, 18, said from his bed at Machakos General Hospital.

A 2017 report on assessment of arson in secondary schools prepared by the National Crime Research Centre listed peer pressure as the leading cause of arson in schools at 34 per cent.

The report listed poor student-teacher relations and drug and substance abuse at 16 per cent and indiscipline at 12 per cent.

Fear of exams, extension of term dates and introduction of strict rules were the other top motivators for arson cases in schools identified by the study at 27 and 19 per cent respectively.

Two students, Felix Mambo Ngumbao and Davis Onyango Opiyo, were identified as persons of interest and eventually charged with the murder of their 67 colleagues.

What witnesses told court

In their account before court, Opiyo and Ngumbao told court how the heinous plot unfolded.

Earlier in March 2001, Opiyo, then a 16-year-old Form 3 student, approached Ngumbao and shared with him plans to burn a dormitory. 

They said they contributed Sh600 to buy petrol and on the morning of March 24, went and bought 15 litres of petrol at a nearby petrol station as the rest of the school was away for a sporting event.

Later that night, some students complained to the school administration that they smelt petrol coming from one of the dormitories but a search by the principal, the head boy and the night guard yielded nothing.

The night guard told the court that on the fateful night, he spotted someone with a flashlight near the dormitory.

When he stopped the student, he realised it was Ngumbao. The student explained to him that he had gone to fetch water.

The school’s Deputy Principal also told the court that he bumped into Ngumbao that same night, took his admission number and let him go.

On Sunday, March 25, 2001, at around 1am, students were woken up by screams of fire from the upper house. 

A survivor, Mutisya Kauma, 16, said he could not sleep in the early hours of the night and had gotten up to visit the washrooms.

“I saw some liquid on the floor but I dismissed it as rainwater," he said. "When I came back a voice asked 'what is that smell?’ It then hit me that the liquid was petrol.”

Kauma said a few minutes later, he heard a loud bang and saw someone wearing a sports jacket running away. A fire then engulfed the building from the middle.

Another survivor, Evans Mutua, 14, said, “I don’t know how I got up out of my bed, how I passed the door. I don't know.''

One of the dormitory's two doors was always kept open; the other was padlocked from the outside.

The locked door at the back and metal grills on windows prevented most of the victims from escaping as evidenced by a pile of bodies found at the two spots.

Flames in the middle of the building where the fire started prevented those at the other end where the door was locked from getting to the open door.

“This is a ghastly incident that has never been seen in these parts before. The doors should have been open,” then-President Daniel Moi said after emerging from the charred ruins of the dormitory that morning.

 “These children could have escaped easily," Moi, who was accompanied by then Education Minister, Kalonzo Musyoka, said and ordered for thorough investigations.

Wellington Choka, one of the first police officers at the scene, said the fire brigade did not come because the initial reports were not of a fire but of a student protest.

All but nine of the 67 boys who died were buried in six mass graves at the school compound which serves as a memorial park to date. 

Kyanguli Bereaved Parents Disaster Self-Care Group was formed after the tragedy to help bereaved parents deal with psychological pain.

Ngumbao and Opiyo charged with murder

Ngumbao and Opiyo were arraigned and charged with the murder of their 67 colleagues on April 9, 2001 at Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi.

Ngumbao initially confessed to taking part in the entire plot but later retracted his handwritten statement saying he had given it under duress from police officers in Athi River.

In his written statement, he admitted to contributing towards the purchase of the petrol but denied taking part in the arson. 

He said he was woken up by screams just like the other students. Opiyo made a similar claim.

More than 100 witnesses testified in the trial that lasted for almost two years before Judge Robert Mutitu.

Justice Mutitu later resigned at the height of Justice Aaron Ringera-led purge on the Judiciary popularly known as 'radical surgery' in 2003.

Justice Nicholas Ombija took over the case but terminated it on December 4, 2006, terming it a mistrial.

Parents of the 67 victims sued the then-head teacher, his deputy, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the school's board of governors and the Attorney General for failing to prevent a felony.

After 15 long years of court hearings, Justice Joseph Sergon awarded them Sh40,900,000 on March 3, 2016. Each family was to receive Sh650,000 for pain and suffering.

While delivering the ruling, Justice Sergon said the school, in its capacity as an agent of the state, failed to prevent the fire even though there had been two earlier arson attempts at the school.

“There were two attempts to burn down the school before that day. The head teacher and his deputy failed to take measures to avert the fire,” Justice Sergon said.

Dissatisfied with the compensation amount, the parents of victims held a protest in Machakos town on February 24, 2017.

In July 2019, the government released Sh54,000,000 as compensation to the bereaved families. Each of the 63 families was to receive Sh857,000.

The whereabouts of the murder suspects remain unknown.

No court records exist to show what became of the murder case after Justice Ombija ruled it a mistrial.