The Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) has called for the immediate resignation of Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and the censure of the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Migos Ogamba, over the deaths of 16 students in the dormitory fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County.
“We call for the immediate censure of the Cabinet Secretary for Education and the resignation of the Cabinet Secretary for Interior, Kipchumba Murkomen, for the deaths of our children at Utumishi Academy,” DCP stated.
The party’s statement, read by Nyandarua Senator John Methu who also serves as DCP Secretary General Designate, expressed deep condolences to the families of the victims.
They also directed criticism at the government’s disaster preparedness and the conduct of key Cabinet Secretaries in the hours following the tragedy.
“The Cabinet Secretary for Interior Kipchumba Murkomen must take personal responsibility in the loss of lives of the children who have lost their lives,” Methu said.
He added that CS Murkomen had been informed of the fire at 2 am but failed to mobilise the government machinery or make the one-and-a-half-hour drive to the scene.
“The Cabinet Secretary is too big that he could not even drive, he chose to only fly and was waiting for the weather to clear up this morning,” he charged.
The party also took aim at the Education CS, questioning why it was easier to attend a function at Safari Park Hotel than to travel to Nakuru while students lay dead.
“What was so hard for the Cabinet Secretary for Education to move to Nakuru as compared to going to Safari Park Hotel when our girls have died in numbers? Where is empathy?” Methu posed.
DCP further questioned the state of disaster preparedness in the country, pointing to a long and painful history of school tragedies, from St. Kizito in the 1990s, to Kyanguli Boys, to Hillside Endarasha Academy in 2024, where 21 children died and, the party noted, no full account has ever been given to the public.
“What country is this that we are living in?” Methu asked.
The party also raised concerns over the National Disaster Response Management Bill, which it said remains stuck with the leadership of the National Assembly while children continue to face danger in schools.
“It is unfortunate that the function of disaster response is treated as an afterthought by this administration,” the statement noted.
Methu further questioned why the National Disaster Response Committee, appointed in 2023 under the Office of the Deputy President, had apparently been sidelined in favour of placing the function under the Interior CS as an individual rather than a state department.
“If Utumishi Academy could lose 16 girls, yet we have security agencies at a stone’s throw, how safe are our kids in other parts of the country?” Methu questioned.
He called on the nation to seriously interrogate the safety of boarding schools across Kenya.
