Schools are, by their nature, expected to be safe spaces where children can learn without having to worry about their safety or other mundane problems of life, such as hunger.
But when school dormitories become halls of death, the heart of every parent shudders, because the worst nightmare for a parent is receiving a call from their child’s school only to be told that the child is no more.
As a country, we have invested a great deal of money in conducting inquiries into how we can make schools safer and how we can mitigate disasters such as fires.
We did all this in the hope that headteachers and Boards of Management would ensure that these recommendations were implemented.
It would appear, however, that no sooner were the findings and recommendations of such commissions made public than school managers threw them out of the window.
This demonstrates, without a shadow of a doubt, that we have, as a people, taken a casual attitude towards the sanctity of life. We have normalized the abnormal belief that we can ignore public health and safety rules and still be safe.
As such, when disasters strike, the affected institutions pay a heavy human price. This time, it was the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Kieni, Nyeri County. Tomorrow, it may be another school that your child attends.
- 17 pupils die in tragic fire at Hillside Academy in Nyeri
- Hillside Academy fire death toll rises to 21
Ironically, we think that tragedy is something that befalls others, never us. As a result, we do not take seriously any rules, regulations or recommendations that seek to improve public health and safety, particularly in schools, where children are helpless and have no one to turn to after lights out.
The upshot is that 17 innocent children have died for no fault of their own. They were failed by the adults in charge of their welfare.
Because of this abdication of duty, the parents of these children will live with anguish and regret, wondering for the rest of their lives whether the price their children had to pay with their lives was worth the quest for an education.
And yet, other schools continue to make the same mistakes and turn a blind eye to the same risks that claimed the lives of the Hillside Endarasha Academy learners, meaning that those in positions of responsibility either do not take their work seriously, or they know that they can get away with murder by failing to follow Ministry of Education health and safety guidelines.
It is not enough for top government officials to send messages of condolence to the grieving parents, relatives and friends. This will not bring back the lost lives. It is not enough for them to visit the scene of the tragedy.
This is unlikely to change anything, anyway. What needs to be done is for the school administrators — and the board that was overseeing the school’s operations — to be brought to book expeditiously and decisively.
Only by charging them with abetting the deaths of the students and putting the offenders behind bars for a long time will they serve as a lesson to other school managers who take their responsibility negligently.
That said, even as we mourn the deaths of the young ones; even as we fulminate the sins of omission and commission by the school administrators, we must commend the speed with which early responders moved to save lives. Their swift response, without a doubt, saved many lives and must not go unappreciated.
However, we must also learn another important lesson: it is crucial to have good roads leading to every school — and hospital — in every part of Kenya, so that emergency services are not hindered by dilapidated infrastructure.
There is no point in taking pride in mega projects when we cannot fix broken windows.
Finally, we must have a disaster preparedness team that actually responds to disasters. Otherwise, we must drop the pretense and live without one. This is better than believing in an illusion.
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