Kenya Power has officially ruled out any electrical fault as the cause of the tragic fire that claimed the lives of 21 boys at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri.
The power company further noted that it was first alerted to the tragic fire, which broke out in one of the school’s dormitories, on Friday morning.
Following the incident, Kenya Power dispatched a technical team to the school to conduct an initial investigation of the site.
In a statement released by the company, they addressed rumors linking the fire to an electrical issue.
“We have ascertained there was no link between the cause of the fire and any fault on our network as alleged in sections of media reports,” the company clarified.
“The line supplying the school is a low voltage line from Mweiga sub-station. At the time when the fire incident occurred, supply was stable on this line with no reported incidences,” the statement noted, adding that all equipment, including the meter, supply cables, earthings, and transformer, were unaffected by the fire.
Kenya Power also revealed that the school’s prepaid meters, located in a different part of the campus, were completely untouched by the flames. “This was the case for all other adjacent customers supplied by the same transformer,” the company confirmed.
The findings are based on an initial review of Kenya Power’s protection systems, which traced the lines from the school’s meter box back to the substation where the medium voltage line originates.
“As a company, electrical safety is of utmost priority in all our operations. Upon receiving the news of this fire incident, our team in Nyeri switched off the power supply to the school as a precautionary measure while handling fire incidences,” the statement explained.
Despite ruling out an electrical fault, the company emphasized its commitment to continue cooperating with other agencies to uncover the true cause of the fire.
