Seven Kenyan teenage schoolgirls have been reported dead with 10 more hospitalized after a fire engulfed their boarding school dormitory in Nairobi early on Saturday morning.
The cause of the fire was not known.
The education minister Fred Matiangi, when he visited the school revealed that the government has ordered Moi Girls School closed for two weeks while it investigated.
He told reporters;
“A fire broke out at the school at 2:00am in the morning in one of the dormitories,”
He said the school, which has nearly 1,200 students, is “one of our top schools in the country and… (one) that we are very proud of.”
The Kenyan police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Saturday morning.
A shaken 16-year-old schoolgirl, Daniella Maina, told Reuters;
“We were sleeping and a girl woke us up and said that our hostel was burning. We were helped to safety by some teachers.”
