A Quality Assurance officer from the Ministry of Education has told a public inquest into the Hillside Endarasha Academy inferno that the school had met the minimum safety and operational requirements before the September 5, 2024 fire tragedy.

Charles Kamau, the Quality Assurance and Standards Officer in charge of Kieni West Sub-County told the inquest that a year prior to the fire; the school through its Director Mr David Kinyua had applied for registration for a Junior Secondary school section.

He said that as a requirement, he conducted an inspection of the school on October 15, 2023 and established that the school had complied with the basic requirements for registration as a junior school under the Basic Education procedures.

“First they had the physical infrastructure like tuition facilities, the school was compliant with the health and safety standards, it was a conducive environment for the learners and the staffing, the teachers were implementing the curriculum, it did have the requisite facilities like a laboratory, a library among other things we look into when we ascertain the suitability of a school to offer learning,” said Kamau.

“The tuition infrastructure was good because the classrooms were adequate, the furniture was available, the books were in place, the labs and library was also available. There was even a computer room so the physical infrastructure was good. In the dormitories there were two exit doors opening outwards. The beds were adequate, there was one bed per learner and there were double decker beds. There were two fire extinguishers, the windows did not have any grills, there were adequate adjacent toilets and bathrooms and adjacent rooms for house parents; patron and matron,” he added.

“In terms of safety and health standard, the school had regular piped water. The school had barbed wire and a live fence and a manned gate that secured the whole compound. We found the school had adequate energy for their use, they had both solar power and electricity from Kenya Power and Lighting Company,” said Kamau adding that had the school failed to meet these requirements, the Ministry would not have allowed the school to operate.

He however acknowledged that his inspection report did not provide details on several aspects of the dormitory’s safety including the material used for construction.

During the cross examination by the Counsel for the victims’ families, Raphael Olieti, Kamau revealed that the boys main dormitory was constructed using cut stone, while an adjacent extension was constructed out of iron sheets and wood.

He however maintained that the Ministry of Education’s School Safety Standards Manual did not require dormitories to be constructed exclusively using concrete or stone, but instead assessed whether the structures met the prescribed safety standards.

“The Ministry doesn’t specify if a dormitory should necessarily be made of stone, what we emphasize is it should meet safety standards. Being made of timbre and iron sheets doesn’t mean it isn’t safe,” he said.

Kamau further admitted that the report did not indicate what material the beds were made of, the number of learners in relation to the available beds in the dormitory or if spacing between beds in the ill-fated dorm complied with 1.2 meters spacing requirement, explaining that inspection assessed the capacity of a dormitory.

“What we do, we look at the capacity of the dormitory,” he said.

The inquest which started in November 2025, is trying to piece together the series of events that took place at the school on the night of September 5 2024, just two days after the school had re-opened for third Term.

The fire is reported to have broken out at between 10pm-11pm on that fateful Thursday night.

While giving his testimony before Nyeri Senior Resident Magistrate, Mary Gituma, Kamau told the inquest that a roll-call at the school established that that 27 boys and 32 girls were still at the school, while 12 boys had been rushed to hospital.

“After the roll call, there were a total of 59 learners in the school. Some of the children had been picked up by their parents,” he narrated.

The court also heard testimony from an officer from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) who was stationed at the Kieni West sub-county at the time of the fire.

In his testimony Corporal Stanley Wachira described the scene as devastating, with the fire having destroyed nearly all the property inside the building.

“Leaners personal property, iron sheets, anything that was wooden burnt down. Only the brick wall was left standing,” said Wachira.

He told the inquest that as the DCI officers were cordoning off the scene, that they established that approximately 17 bodies were inside the burnt dormitory.

“I peeped through the window that is when I saw the bodies. They were scattered in various places within the burnt dormitory. Some were near the exit. Some were on the floor. There were some on the beds. I cannot ascertain the exact numbers that were on the beds, but there were some. Most of the bodies had been burnt beyond recognition,” he said.

The inquest will continue on February 15, 2027.

By Wangari Mwangi and George Kabithi