144 students spent night in the cold at Sigalame High School

More than 130 students at Sigalame Boys High School in Funyula, Busia County spent the night in the cold after their dormitory was razed to ashes in a Monday night fire. 

The 8pm fire incident is the fourth after the school had three fires last term.

The first inferno incident happened on July 27, a day after schools reopened for term one. A dormitory caught fire in the middle of the night. 
This was followed by another fire on August 10 and a third one on August 25.

School Principal Peter Auma is now pointing an accusing finger at parents and the neighbouring community of orchestrating the fires at the school.

The school has a population of 1,600 students who sleep in 19 dormitory blocks. Four of these dormitories have been burnt to ashes by arsonists. 

“It is not normal for a single school to be burnt down at this rate. Students are calm and we suspect outside forces,” said Mr Auma, adding that DCI officers in Busia had launched investigations into the latest inferno.

Meanwhile, Busia County Director of Education Thadeus Awori is accusing DCI officers of taking too long to investigate the school fires in the county. 

“The officers commenced investigating when the first fire broke out in this school. Three more have followed yet they have not established the cause. Is somebody sleeping on the job or it is a conspiracy?” Mr Awori expressed

Police officers were deployed to provide security at Sigalame School after the first fire incident. 

Currently, the school has more than four night guards. It remains unclear how arsonists managed to set the dormitory ablaze unnoticed. 

Funyula sub-county is now leading in cases of school infernos. 

One school, Namboboto Secondary, has been converted into a day school following several fire incidents.