An education crisis persisted in Kakamega county yesterday after two more secondary schools were shut down indefinitely on Sunday evening.

The students of St. Peter’s Mumias Boys and Kivaywa High Schools were sent home after fires razed their dormitories.

The arson incidents come barely a week after students at the Sacred Heart Mukumu Girls and Butere Boys were sent home and the institutions closed following suspected cholera outbreak.

Dozens other students are still admitted in various hospitals because of health crises. Following the Sunday night incident at Kivaywa Boys, five students have been arrested with the school administration saying one had confessed to being behind the arson attack by yesterday morning.

Lugari MP Nabii Nabwera, in whose constituency the school is located, led members of the local community in apprehending the suspects who are in police custody.

“I had a tough Sunday evening in one of the leading institutions in my constituency after one of its dormitories was burnt by the students,” the MP said.

“We have apprehended five suspects with the help of police and local community. One of them has confessed,” he added.

No suspect had been arrested in the St Peter’s tragedy by the time of going to press as police intensified investigations.

The affected students lost property running into thousands of shillings in the inferno that destroyed two dormitories. 

Luckily, there were no fatalities as the boys were not in the affected dormitories at the time of the incident.

Mukumu Girls and Butere Boys, meanwhile, remained closed with no signs of reopening any time soon.

The institutions remained desolate while workers continued with cleaning the school. The People Daily established that public health officers were still analysing samples that they obtained from the water sources and food in the schools.

Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha blamed managements of the two institutions during a visit on Wednesday.

“The kitchen area was not very well done. The Principal has no excuse not to manage hygiene in the kitchen and stores,” she said of Mukumu Girls.  And parents condemned deaths and illnesses of students that led to the closure of the institutions last week and demanded for a lasting solution.

“There is widespread negligence in our schools that led to such unfortunate incidents at Mukumu and Butere,” said the Kenya Association of Parents Secretary-General Silas Buhatse.

He added: “The institutions should hire qualified medics who should be constantly monitoring the health of the learners. They should also be on the tendering committees to ensure that the food supplied to the schools was safe,” he added.