A detective who was among the first officers to respond to the scene of a dormitory fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy two years ago could not establish what caused the inferno.
He counted 17 bodies inside the building filled with smoke and bits of wood still smouldering, an inquest heard on Monday.
Testifying before Nyeri Senior Resident Magistrate Mary Gituma, Corporal Stanley Wachira said at the time, on the night of September 5, 2024, it was too early to establish the cause of the fire.
Corporal Wachira, who was then attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) office Kieni West Sub-County, told the inquest that he left for the scene in the company of two colleagues: the county crime scene investigator, Chief Inspector Stephen Natembeya and the duty officer in charge of Kiawara Police Station, Corporal Bernard Muli, shortly before midnight.
By the time they arrived, the fire had already been extinguished.
Education quality assurance officer Charles Kamau appears before the Nyeri Magistrate Court on November 2, 2026. He was testifying before a public inquest investigating the September 5, 2024, dormitory fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy that claimed the lives of 21 boys.
Photo credit: Mercy Mwende | Nation
The dormitory was made up of a wooden and stone structure and had a semi-permanent extension on its side made of iron sheets and timber.
“It was around 1.00am and the school had no electricity, so it was dark. The dormitory had been extensively burnt, leaving only the brick walls standing. There was smoke and debris everywhere, with some of it still burning,” he said.
The detective narrated how he found a multi-agency team consisting of the ward commander of Endarasha Police Station, the Kieni West Sub-county police commander and the Kieni West deputy county commissioner appealing to the public to leave the school grounds so that the investigators could preserve the scene.
After securing the dormitory and its surroundings with a police cordon, Corporal Wachira assisted the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) officer with the preliminary investigations.
“While we were processing the scene, I peeped through the window and observed about 17 bodies in the dorm. The remains were scattered all over the burnt dormitory, approximately four were near the back doors, three were on the walkaways while the rest lay across the floor and on the beds. However, due to the heavy smoke, I was unable to photograph the scene,” he said.
A crime scene tape at the site of the fire that killed 21 boys at Hillside Endarasha Academy.
Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi| Nation Media Group
The following morning, September 6, 2024, at around 8:30 am, the Homicide team from Nairobi arrived and formally took over the crime scene.
“I entirely handed over all investigations to the Homicide detectives from Nairobi and my role was then limited to assisting the Nairobi team with identifying the victims’ parents and helping facilitate the DNA sample collection process,” he said.
The next day, the Nairobi homicide team started processing the scene and retrieved 19 bodies, which were then taken to the Naromoru Level Four Hospital for preservation and autopsy. Two other boys died while receiving treatment at the hospital, bringing the death toll to 21.
Parents at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Kieni, Nyeri County, in September 2024 following a fire tragedy that claimed the lives of 21 learners.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
When cross-examined by the school’s lawyer Muasya Kiprotich, Corporal Wachira said that he never got to know the cause of the fire.
“At the time I was investigating it, it was too early to establish the cause of the inferno, and when I handed over the investigations, I did not follow it up,” he said.
He testified at the inquest that he did not know whether the school breached fire-safety requirements as he never received any fire safety preparedness reports for the school, nor was he provided with any of the subsequent investigative reports generated from the incident.
The inquest also heard from a quality assurance officer, whose evidence examined the school’s compliance with safety requirements.
Mr Charles Kamau, a Ministry of Education quality assurance officer who declared Hillside Endarasha Academy fit to host a junior secondary school in 2023, told the court that his inspection report found that the school met the basic requirements for registration.
Mr Kamau, a quality assurance officer stationed at Kieni West sub-county, testified that he assessed the school for compliance with Ministry of Education requirements to operate a junior school, including infrastructure, staffing, security, sanitation and learning facilities.
The report dated October 15, 2023 found that the school had adequate classrooms, furniture, a library, a laboratory, water, electricity and qualified teachers.
According to the report, the school maintained 24-hour security with dedicated day and night watchmen.
It employed 15 Teacher Service Commission (TSC) qualified teachers, maintaining a student-to-teacher ratio of 1:51.
A drone footage of Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County with the burnt dormitory at the centre.
Photo credit: Nation Media Group
The boys’ and girls’ dormitories featured two double doors that opened outward and were equipped with two firefighting units.
“The dormitories also offered sufficient, adjacent lavatories and an adjoining room for the patron and matron,” he read the report before court.
Adding that the dormitory windows were grill-free, providing ample space for emergency egress.
During cross-examination with the victims' lawyer, Raphael Oliet, the court heard that the report did not indicate whether the dormitories had fire alarms, nor show the spacing between beds, despite the 1.2-metre requirement raised in court and the location of the two fire extinguishers recorded in the report.
Mr Kamau said the report had recommended that the school upgrade the boarding facilities and construct an additional dormitory to ease congestion.
He testified that the boys' dormitory had a main wooden and brick structure and an extension made of wood and iron sheets.
According to him, the DCI had informed him that most of the boys who died had been in the extension.
