President of Kenya, William Ruto has declared three days of national mourning for the tragic loss of 17 pupils in a fire incident at Hillside Endarasha Primary School.
Officials began removing the bodies of students who were burned to death in a school dormitory in central Kenya on Saturday, as they attempted to locate dozens of boys who remain missing.
Eighteen boys aged between 10 and 14 are known to have died and 27 were hospitalised after the Thursday night fire at Hillside Endarasha Primary school, but 70 others are still unaccounted-for.
Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura urged the public to be patient while government officials investigated the area to determine the number of people killed and the source of the fire.
Mwaura stated that more than 20 children had been accounted for by Saturday afternoon, but did not specify whether this figure was an update to the previous number of accounted-for students, which remained at 86 on Friday night.
He stated that the number of children who have perished remains at 18, and that the procedure will take longer.
Anxious parents who had been waiting all day for news about their children were on Friday evening allowed to see what remained of the dormitory.
The government has urged school managers to implement boarding norms requiring dormitories to be roomy, with three entrances and no window grills to allow for easy escape in the event of a fire.
According to a recent education ministry assessment, school fires are widespread at Kenyan boarding schools, and they are frequently caused by arson motivated by drug usage and overcrowding.
Many students board because their parents believe it allows them more time to study without long journeys.
