The Post Mortem of the Hillside Endarasha Calamity Reveals

Chief Government Pathologist Dr. Johansen Oduor said on Thursday, September 12, that students who died in the Hillside Endarasha Academy fire disaster suffered from severe burns and that several of them were missing body parts.

He reported that all 21 bodies had their post-mortems successfully completed by the pathology staff.

“They had different degree of burns and some of them were burnt to the bones…to a level that they had the lower parts of the limbs missing,” Dr Oduor said.

He went on: “However, we were able to obtain samples from inner parts of the bodies for DNA analysis to establish their identity and match them with their parents.”

Dr. Oduor spoke on Thursday at the Naromoru Hospital Mortuary, where Kithure Kindiki, the Interior Cabinet Secretary, also briefed reporters on the status of the investigations.

According to Prof. Kindiki, the administration has sent out pertinent authorities and promised a thorough investigation. He did, however, state that he was unable to give information regarding ongoing investigations.

The police have not disclosed the number of people who have made statements in relation to the disaster thus far; they have only disclosed that Mr. David Kinyua, the school’s owner, was assisting them in their investigation.

Along with assuring the country that the administration had nothing to conceal, Prof. Kindiki also cautioned the people against disseminating false information about the disaster on social media.

“I have seen some issues on numbers on social media…I want to say that this is a national security matter…we have made it very clear that we have nothing to hide. We shall give the information daily in a very coordinated way,” Prof Kindiki said.

‘No lost children’

The Interior Cabinet Secretary stated that the appropriate government agencies had completed reconciling information on the number of boys in the dormitory that night and that as of right now, no minors have been reported missing as a result of the disaster.

“We had a total of 823 pupils enrolled in the school, out of these, 330 were boarders. On the fateful night, we had 164 boys and 166 girls in the two dormitories,” he said.

Out of the 164 boys who slept in the hostel that night, 140 are now with parents, 143 are still alive, and three are being treated at various county hospitals, according to the Interior CS.

“Any other person trying to play whatever game on the statistics is a heartless criminal, because this is a time that we are facing such an issue as a country,” he said, cautioning the people against disseminating false information based on the numbers. It is important that we band together to help the families.

The Protest

On Thursday, a group of activists demonstrated in front of the school, claiming that the government was withholding information from the general public.

During the “Occupy Endarasha” rallies, a group of activists demanded to know the whereabouts of children reported missing.

The teenagers, led by activist Kasmuel Mcoure, expressed dissatisfaction with the probes as well.

Social media has revealed that some children are missing from the picture. Why is the government lying to us when we continue to hear complaints from parents about missing children on our trip here? inquired one of the protesters.

However, Nyeri Deputy County Commissioner Agnes Shadrack encouraged the young people to wait for the investigation result and to be patient while she addressed their issues outside the school gate.

For more than three hours, the demonstrations caused a standstill outside the school.
But several people blocked the roads that led to the school.
Mr. John Muturi, a resident, advised the young people demonstrating to hold off until after the appropriate government agencies had completed their investigation.

“As a village, we want peace. We want space to grieve our children. We appreciate our youths’ concerns but this is the wrong time. Let’s wait and see what the government will find,” he said.