The long-awaited public inquest into the September 2024 Hillside Endarasha Academy fire tragedy has been postponed to November 20, 2025.
This is after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) failed to present its report to the Nyeri court.
Parents of the 21 boys who perished in the dormitory fire arrived in court on Thursday morning, expecting proceedings to begin, only to learn that the DCI had not submitted its investigation file.
The delay forced the magistrate to defer the start of the inquest.
Presiding Magistrate Maryanne Gituma then directed that the parents be provided with all documents and evidence that the ODPP and the state intend to rely on during the inquest.
The hearing will now resume on November 20.
Represented by lawyer Raphael Okubo, the parents expressed deep disappointment, saying they had not received any official communication from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) or other government agencies about the case.
“We came to register our presence in court and to be made part of the proceedings because, interestingly, the victims’ parents had not been informed or made aware of them. By way of vigilance, we came today to register and formally request to be made part of the proceedings,” said Okubo.
The DPP had earlier directed that the matter be treated as a public inquest, a position that Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen confirmed in August during the Jukwaa la Usalama forum held in Nyeri.
Alongside the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and the Elimu Bora Working Group, the parents have also filed a constitutional petition accusing education authorities of negligence.
The petition names as respondents the school’s owners, the National Education Board, the Nyeri County Education Board, the County Director of Education, and the Education Cabinet Secretary.
They argue that the authorities failed to uphold safety standards in schools, a lapse that led to the loss of their children’s lives.
The petitioners are asking the court to compel the respondents to release the full report on the incident, stating that withholding it violates their constitutional right to human dignity under Article 28.
