The blaze in Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri county broke out at around midnight, police said, engulfing rooms where more than 150 children were sleeping.
NAIROBI - At least 17 young children were killed in a fire that ripped through their primary school dormitory in central Kenya overnight, with initial reports Friday indicating it was overcrowded.
"The bodies recovered at the scene were burnt beyond recognition," national police spokesperson Resila Onyango told AFP.She said several children had been taken to a nearby hospital with injuries. "There has been very little information. They are telling us some children escaped but we are not being told to where," said Francis Wachira, 33, who has a daughter at the school.
Elisabeth Nyambura, 35, said her 13-year-old son had been found and taken home while she looked for one of his classmates. AFP footage showed the blackened shell of the dormitory, with its corrugated iron roof completely collapsed.But Kenya's National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated the dormitory was"overcrowded, in violation of safety standards" and called for an immediate inquiry. President William Ruto, currently in Bejing for a China-Africa summit, expressed his condolences in a post on X.
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