A fire on Thursday at Nyeri’s Hillside Endarasha Academy left at least 21 students dead and dozens missing. Unfortunately, this is not the first such tragedy in Kenya, with the State always responding in a knee-jerk manner.

The dormitory that caught fire housed about 150 students. What is astonishing is the revelation that firefighters responding to the incident lacked water, hampering rescue operations. They had to drive 16km to away to get water, delaying the response. Besides this are reports that the road leading to the school was in a pathetic condition.

Instructively, in 2020, the Auditor General released a report on fire preparedness in schools, revealing that many, if not all schools in Kenya, were not well prepared for fires.

Buildings in several schools, the report said, had doors opening inwards, meaning that students were likely to lock the doors from inside as they struggled to get out in the event of a afire. Some schools had windows with metal grills, contrary to regulations.

The investigation also revealed that some schools did not have doors at each end of a dormitory or clearly labelled emergency exits in the middle.

Some dormitories had doorways of less than the recommended five feet that would allow easy escape, meaning existing doors were likely to hinder evacuation in the event of a fire.

Some schools did not have the required firefighting equipment to be able to handle fires appropriately, like fire extinguishers, fire blankets, and fire alarms.

The Endarasha fire tragedy calls for an urgent review to ensure that acceptable safety standards are maintained at all learning institutions.

Most schools have inadequate or no fire extinguishers and the few that can be found are inoperable or expired and are never regularly inspected or replaced if found faulty as required.

Staff overseeing the security and safety of students need to be trained on how to operate firefighting equipment or what actions to take when a fire breaks out. Every school should also have a siren for alerting everyone.

As Kenyans ponder the Endarasha fire tragedy and whether it could have been avoided, the key question that should continuously ring in the minds of the authorities is be whether schools with boarding facilities are built with the safety of students in mind.

Does the Ministry of Education engage competent safety departments to undertake regular or random checks at schools? Does it ensure enforcement of safety measures and present reports to schools on any findings before issuing certification on safety awareness and readiness before students are allowed to boarding facilities?