Parents of students in Kyanguli fire tragedy to be compensated 18 years later

Parents who lost their children in the fire tragedy at Kyanguli Memorial Secondary School in Machakos County have been awarded Ksh.54 million as compensation after an 18 years wait.

This follows a court ruling issued on Wednesday in favour of the 63 families of the victims and survivors who went to court in 2002.

This means each family will receive Ksh.857,000.

A total of 67 students died in the fierce inferno that gutted down a boys dormitory on the ill-fated night of March 26, 2001.

In 2016, the 63 families who sued had been awarded Ksh.40.9 million as compensation, which would have seen each family get Ksh.650,000.

According to the chairman of the bereaved parents Hillary Kitata, they had not received the earlier Ksh.40.9 million promised to them in March 2016.

Mr. Kitata, who was addressing journalists in Machakos County, added that the Ksh.54 million compensation process is expected to take 14 days.

The victims sued the then headmaster David Mutiso, his deputy Stephen Kasyoka, Teachers Service Commission, the school’s board of governors and the attorney general.