Kinoti cautions unruly students as detectives launch crackdown
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) yesterday launched a crackdown on unruly students after a series of school fires in different parts of the country.
Barely two months before candidates sit for their national examinations, the worrying trend has forced the police to intervene and resolved to prefer charges against those culpable.
Detectives are under firm instructions to take the requisite lawful action against any student, suspected to be involved in any criminal activities.
Yesterday, detectives arrested 10 students among them a 17-year-old male juvenile believed to be the mastermind in the torching of a dormitory at Kiambere Secondary School, in Embu county.
Treacherous act
DCI boss George Kinoti the suspect was arrested following an identification parade, after detectives discovered that he had prior to the incident, sent a pupil from a neighboring primary school to buy him a matchbox.
“The suspect is cooperating with our investigators and so far, he has revealed names of nine other students with whom they executed the treacherous act,” said Kinoti.
He added that the students all aged between 15 and 19 years had been placed under lawful custody at Kiritiri Police Station.
“The students will be arraigned at Siakago Law courts, to answer to their crimes,” he added.
The DCI cautioned other students harboring similar intentions to seek alternative problem-solving mechanisms, as opposed to destruction of property.
At least six students in Bomet county are in custody over the torching of dormitories in Kimulot boys’ high school as police try to narrow down on criminal elements at the institution.
In Kisumu county, police have launched investigations to establish the cause of fire that gutted down a dormitory at Kisumu Boys High school yesterday.
The morning inferno that reduced the 60-capacity dormitory to ashes is blamed on arson attack.
Kisumu Central OCPD Peter Kattam said their officers are probing the incident whose cause was not immediately established.
And in Bungoma county, another school was yesterday closed indefinitely after the students razed down one of the dormitories.
Students of Bukembe Boys High School in Kanduyi constituency razed down a dormitory on Monday night over entertainment.
The Kilimanjaro dormitory that hosts 112 students was set ablaze when students were attending their evening preps. —Stories by Roy Lumbe, Viola Kosome and Yusuf Masibo
