- All the students recorded statements with the police and were detained at Konza Police Station pending further investigations and arraignment in court.
- Machakos County police commander Patrick Lobolia confirmed the arrest and said DCI is handling the matter.
Six students have been arrested after teachers thwarted an attempted arson at Muumandu Day and Boarding secondary school in Kalama, Machakos County.
Machakos County police commander Patrick Lobolia confirmed the arrest and said DCI is handling the matter.
Lobolia said that the suspects will be arraigned once investigations are concluded.
"There were two bottles of 500ml containing petrol recovered from the suspects which they had gone to purchase. This will be used as an exhibit in court. They will be arraigned once investigations are complete," Lobolia told the Star on phone on Thursday.
A police source said teachers at the school acted on a tip-off and successfully prevented the students from razing school dormitories on Tuesday
“A Form Four, day scholar student, had bought petrol and hid it along the school fence,” the source told the Star on Wednesday.
The source divulged to the Star that officers from Konza police station responded to the school management’s distress call and arrested the said student.
“The suspect after his arrest led the police officers to where he had hidden the one–litre petrol which was packed in two half-separate bottles. Police recovered the petrol,” the source said.
The other arrested students for attempted arson included; two Form 4 boarders who hail from Nairobi, one of who allegedly contributed Sh50 for the purchase of petrol, a Form 2 border who hails from Nairobi, a Form 4 day scholar and resident of Muumandu village, just near the school vicinity and a Form one border from Nairobi.
The Form One border is said to have contributed Sh200 for the purchase of petrol.
The other student was a Form 4 border who hails from Nairobi.
All the students recorded statements with the police and were detained at Konza Police Station pending further investigations and arraignment in court.
Elsewhere within the same Kalama subcounty, Kyandili secondary school students were indefinitely released to go home after they threatened to go on a rampage if the school management failed to let them go home.
The management released all the 800 students after the school closed indefinitely on Wednesday.
The incidents happened barely a day after a dormitory was razed at Makutano Boys High School in Mwala, Machakos County on Tuesday
Police in Mwala, Machakos county, are investigating a suspected arson incident at Makutano Boys High School.
The police swung into action after fire razed a dormitory at the institution early Tuesday.
Police said the fire broke out at about 8 am while students were in their classrooms.
The inferno razed a dormitory with students losing their personal effects, including clothes, boxes, bedding, books, and utensils, to the fire. However, no student was injured during the incident.
The school is located in Makutano, Masii Division in the Mwala subcounty.
The matter was reported to Masii police station as a fire incident report shortly after it happened.
Police officers from the station responded to the scene and joined in, putting out the fire alongside a fire brigade from Machakos County Government.
Several boys were later detained and quizzed about the incident at Masii and Mwala police stations.
About seven students were being probed by senior police officers when the Star visited the Masii police station on Tuesday evening.
A Directorate of Criminal Investigation detective attached to the station divulged that the students were being grilled to help identify those who torched the dormitory.
“None of the students have been arrested so far. Several of them are currently being quizzed by our colleagues here and at Mwala police station with the intent of getting the exact culprits,” the DCI detective said.
He said they had earlier processed the scene and extracted relevant samples, which they sent to their laboratory for forensic examinations.
“We have already commenced the investigations and will make arrests once we get results on the forensics,” the officer said.
An official said a review of CCTV cameras showed that electricity went off at exactly 7.30 am, 30 minutes before the dormitory went up in flames.
He said some of the questions they were grappling to find answers to are; Who started the fire? Who switched the lights off? How did the culprit(s) access the dormitory after it was closed and students went to classrooms? How come the school administration never detected a plan to torch the school at 8 am?
The official said it was worrying that Machakos had emerged among counties leading in school fire incidents.
He said there were high indications that the fire was a result of arson.