Human rights groups sue Gov't over Hillside Endarasha school fire

A group of human rights defenders have moved to court to sue the government over the Hillside Endarasha Academy fire which claimed the lives of 21 learners.

A petition filed by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), the Elimu Bora Working Group and a section of the parents, listed the Attorney General, Education Cabinet Secretary Migos Ogamba and Hillside Endarasha Academy proprietor David Kinyua among eight respondents to the case. In the petition, the group is demanding for justice and compensation.

The group is seeking the court’s intervention in compelling the government to charge its officers who failed to ensure the safety of the boys.

"We are convinced that there was negligence and that justice needs to be served, we are convinced that someone should be held accountable because someone slept on their job," KHRC’s Mary Kambo said.

"Our schools should be safe learning spaces. It should not be that we send our children to school, only for the schools to end up to be death traps so to speak and result in the loss of their lives," Lawyer Raphael Okubo added.

"It is a pity that we can assume after such an act happened, then everything goes on normal like nobody cares. We put it at the doorstep of the government that they have a responsibility to protect their rights," Boaz Waruku noted.

"It’s never been clear what happened after they sent their sons to school. None has come to them with answers, we have heard about investigations being done, even the DNA tests that were conducted, the results were not even brought to them," Kambo pointed out. 

The petitioners are, however, not opposed to the move by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to initiate a public inquest into the tragedy, if it means getting answers that the bereaved parents so desperately seek.