The mystery surrounding the cause of the deadly fire that killed 21 pupils at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County has deepened after the Kenya Power distanced itself from any responsibility, saying investigations showed there were no electrical faults.
Kenya Power’s Nyeri County Manager, Mr Duncan Machuka, told journalists Tuesday evening that initial findings informed by a preliminary analysis showed there was no link between the fire and the school’s electrical system.
“As a company, electrical safety is of utmost priority in all our operations. Upon receiving the news of this incident, our team in Nyeri switched off power supply to the school as a precautionary measure.”
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Mr Machuka said the firm later mobilised a technical team to visit the school and carry out a preliminary analysis of the affected site, which found that the line supplying the school at the time of the incident was low voltage and stable.
The analysis, Kenya’s Power’s manager said, also established that all electricity installations were intact and that the fire didn’t affect two prepaid meters located within the school, which was also the case for all adjacent consumers supplied by the same transformer.
“Based on these findings from the meter box to the substation where the medium voltage line serving the school emanates, we have ascertained there was no link between the fire and any fault on our network as alleged by some,” he said.
Mr Machuka said the company will continue to collaborate with other investigative agencies to establish the cause of the fire.
