​Twelve Form Three students from Maranda High School are being held at Bondo Police Station in connection with a Sunday afternoon arson attack that destroyed a three-storey dormitory.

​The suspects were apprehended by fellow students while attempting to flee the scene and subsequently handed over to law enforcement by the school administration.

​Bondo Sub-County Police Commandant Robert Aboki confirmed on Monday May 25, 2026 that investigators have recovered critical CCTV footage from two petrol stations in Bondo town. 

The footage reportedly depicts six of the suspects purchasing the fuel used to ignite the Owino “B” dormitory.

​According to police, the suspects orchestrated the plan on Saturday by pooling together KSh 2,500. They allegedly sneaked out of the school compound in civilian clothing during a weekend sports event, purchased eight liters of petrol, and smuggled the jerrycan back into the school through a fence before hiding it in a dustbin.

​”On Sunday after the afternoon tea break, the six were joined by six accomplices to execute the plan,” Mr. Aboki said. “They spread blankets and mattresses along the corridors of the building, doused them in petrol, and set them ablaze.”

​The police boss added that the students, who wore hoods and masks during the attack, fled to the school toilets to hide, where detectives later recovered the discarded civilian clothing.

The affected dormitory housed Form Four and Grade 10 students. The school administration confirmed that personal property worth thousands of shillings was destroyed in the inferno.

​Early Monday morning, the school administration sent all Form Three students home indefinitely to defuse mounting tension between them and the aggrieved Form Four candidates.

​The twelve suspects are expected to be arraigned in court tomorrow after police successfully petitioned the Bondo Law Courts for a custodial order to hold them pending the completion of investigations.

​The incident at Maranda points to a troubling trend of school unrest in the region, coming just days after the indefinite closure of neighboring Ambira Boys’ High School in Ugunja sub-county.

​Students at Ambira went on a violent rampage last week, heavily vandalizing the principal’s office, staff room, laboratories, and the computer lab, forcing security and education stakeholders to intervene amid rising concerns over discipline in regional schools.