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Students linked to the Utumishi Girls High School dormitory fire that claimed the lives of 16 students appear before Chief Magistrate Ramadhan Abdulqadir at the Naivasha Law Courts. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]
Everything around the Utumishi Academy tragedy starts and ends with one harsh reality: Sixteen girls are gone. Sixteen children who were in school as expected, who went to bed in their dormitory like any other night, did not wake up to another morning of school.
The entire country is heartbroken. Questions abound, accusations are flying, everyone is desperate to find meaning out of this. But what is making this tragedy harder to process is the allegation that the fire may have been started by fellow students.
And so the rage, the questions and despair becomes harder to process because what do you do when children engage in actions that cause this much pain and devastation? What can society do to make sense of it let alone ensure justice is served?
