Parents threaten to move students from Sigoti over school fires

Parents at Sigoti Complex Girls Secondary School in Kisumu County are threatening to transfer their children en masse following a spate of fires.

The school was Monday closed indefinitely to deal with the aftermath of yet another inferno on Sunday.

The agitated parents issued the threat after property of unknown value was destroyed when fire burnt a dormitory at the school.

According to the students, the fire started at 4am when Form One students, who mostly occupy the dorm, were asleep. No casualties were reported.

This is the fourth fire at the institution in a span of five months as some locals and parents allege ‘devil worship’ by some students is the cause of the infernos.

“My child told me that there is a Form Three student, who transferred to the institution from Nyakach Girls High School, suspected to be a devil worshipper and behind the fires,” said a parent who asked not to be named.

“We must sort this issue or all of us will take our children away from this school,” she added.

DESERTED

When Nation visited the school Monday, it was deserted with only workers left.

Burnt items belonging to the students remained strewn all over inside and outside the destroyed dorm.

At the gate, police officers were present to thwart any attempts by locals or parents to storm the institution and also to provide security to students who started leaving the school from Sunday morning.

With all the happenings, investigations to find those responsible for the fires that have rocked the school since last year remain shrouded in mystery with claims of devil worship, conflict between locals and the principal and land ownership disputes being floated as the factors leading to the infernos.

Nyanza regional police commander Leonard Katana said they were yet to establish the cause of the fire.

A few weeks ago, he had indicated that two people had been charged in connection to the school fires.

ANIMOSITY

But a local who was born and raised in Sigoti, Mr Shem Okuto, admitted there was some animosity between them and the Principal, Mrs Rose Ndiga.

He added that the first fire sometime September last year, was said to have been caused by an electricity fault.

He narrated how they came in and helped put out the fire but the school head accused them of starting a second one the following morning.

“We have been helping in extinguishing the fire and saving a lot of property, but when Madam started accusing us of being arsonists we stopped and that is why locals kept off this time round leading to loss of property as the roof even caved in,” said Mr Okuto.

He added since the hostility between them and the school head started, police have always been deployed to guard the institution day and night.

LAND OWNER

He pointed out that a person who owned the parcel of land on which the school is built did not take it lightly after he was “forced out of the land”, a matter he pointed out could also be tied to the woes befalling the school.

The building that burnt was a laboratory transformed into a dormitory.

This was after the earlier fires destroyed the others.

A temporary dormitory has been constructed to house learners whose population continue to grow following the recent admission of Form ones.

Nyanza Regional Police Commander Mr Leonard Katana said the fire started around 4am Sunday and that they are yet to establish the cause.

A few weeks ago, Mr Katana had indicated that two people had been charged with arson in connection to the school fire tragedies.

“My officers are on the ground trying to get to the route of the matter,” said Mr Katana.

FREQUENT FIRES

Mrs Ndiga has remained hostile to journalists even as devastated parents demanded answers to the frequent fires.

The early Sunday morning fire incident happened two weeks after another tragedy in the school that led to its indefinite closure.

The January incident had occurred barely four months after two dormitories at the secondary school were burnt in a span of three days.

The principal had indicated then that the students had undergone counselling after the fire incident even as education officials and parents suspected it was an arson attack.

Mrs Sabina Arodi, the county director of education, had said it could have been an arson attack, just like two fires last year.

She called on anybody with information regarding the infernos to approach her office in a bid to resolve any conflict that may put the lives of students in danger.

Other lobby groups from the region have also continued to pile pressure on the government to step in and establish the cause of the fires.