Moi Girls fire, the work of a psycopathic arsonist?

[Kadame7]

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https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/09/04/moi-girls-fire-was-arson-matiangi-says-death-toll-rises-to-nine_c1629067

They discussed it in a WhatsApp group with chief suspect saying she wanted to burn the school because her parents did not take her to the school she wanted and she really wanted to shock them. She woke two of her friends and they left in safety leaving their peers to burn. This has sent chills down my spine. God help us. She's 14.

[KenyanPlato]

yap she had attempted suicide twice

[vooke]

I have interacted with high school kids and the things they share are shocking
1. Homosexuality
2. Substance abuse
3. Satanism
4. Broken families

There's a boy from [REDACTED] Boys in Tala who wept before me. I mean a huge mass of man because his dad dumped him in that school and hadn't seen him since then. He was in a National school and was falsely implicated in the arson wave of last year that hit his school. He spent two months in a remand before being released. His dad showed up and sent him to Tala,to a 'funny' school. He was suicidal and he had plans of hanging himself.....I think there is need for more counseling. Like real counseling and mentorship in schools.

[RVtitem]

These boarding schools are prisons. There should be good day school option for parents who want there kids at home or kids who would like to be home.

Let boarding schools remain homes for weirdos and be correction facilities.

[MOON Ki]

https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/09/04/moi-girls-fire-was-arson-matiangi-says-death-toll-rises-to-nine_c1629067

They discussed it in a WhatsApp group with chief suspect saying she wanted to burn the school because her parents did not take her to the school she wanted and she really wanted to shock them. She woke two of her friends and they left in safety leaving their peers to burn. This has sent chills down my spine. God help us. She's 14.

Interesting questions there.  We'll skip the one about how schools have made plans for such contingencies, given that they are now becoming the norm in Kenyan boarding schools.   Question about that story is this: if the perps could leave to safety, why couldn't the other girls leave when the fire started?   Did the perps lock them in or what?   Etc.

The article at the link also raises some interesting points:

Matiang'i said some arson attacks had been related to fights over staff appointments in schools, where senior positions can bring financial rewards.
...
"Some of the fires we have faced before in the sector are related to that kind of thing, politicisation of school headship, politicisation of responsibility in the education sector. It is not right," he said in a press conference.

"We cannot resolve a conflict on the headship of the school by burning a school."

Unemployment is high in Kenya and corruption is rife, and control of a school can mean not just a government salary, but an opportunity to extort extra money from students and parents in fees or other charges.

So, probably not a "psycopathic arsonist".   It looks like both the teachers and the kids are burning schools for their own reasons, and most of those involved are probably "normal" types.

Kenya is increasingly becoming a broken society, especially for the youth, and I can only expect that there will be more fires in these schools.   There have been "enough", and nobody seems to really care.   

[Kadame7]

Moon Ki, there's lots to blame the adults for and they should bear their cross. But that doesn't take away from the cold-blooded actions of this young girl. If she started the fire then she would have had time/opportunity to warn her friends before the others still deeply asleep. The rest just noticed on their own once the fire became big. Most made it out alive. Not so the poor 8/9 dead girls and the many others with now permanent injuries or scars. Asked why she didn't warn everyone else, she said she didn't think about it at the time. You see fire and you don't warn the people in the room? In fact you go all the way upstairs to get one girl out. Talk about another affair that doesn't at all seem like "innocent fumbling".

[RV Pundit]

So sad time to incentivize more day schools

[Kichwa]

I have always been a proponent of Day Schools for a long time and I think that this is the solution for affordable high school education. Children between ages 12 to 18 need parental guidance everyday in these formative years.  Boarding schools has made parents outsource their parental obligations to teachers and older children.  Most kids in boarding schools raise themselves because unlike the old days, the teachers are busy doing business to earn extra income after school and over the weekends because of the high cost of living.  Children in boarding schools pretty much raise themselves.

So sad time to incentivize more day schools

[RV Pundit]

Agreed.community leaders should led the push to convert all good schools to day schools.In meantime Gok should establish model day schools where students can excel to change the narrative.

[gout]

Given most 'good' schools are in Nairobi and Kiambu this would be marginalizing bright kids from NEP, Coast, Nyanza and such.
More accountability at Jogoo House and maybe the need to have School Managers hired by Ministry not TSC, KNUT and KUPPET have really messed accountability issues, always crying victimization.

[RV Pundit]

GoK can build model schools everywhere.

Given most 'good' schools are in Nairobi and Kiambu this would be marginalizing bright kids from NEP, Coast, Nyanza and such.
More accountability at Jogoo House and maybe the need to have School Managers hired by Ministry not TSC, KNUT and KUPPET have really messed accountability issues, always crying victimization.

[KenyanPlato]

Given most 'good' schools are in Nairobi and Kiambu this would be marginalizing bright kids from NEP, Coast, Nyanza and such.
More accountability at Jogoo House and maybe the need to have School Managers hired by Ministry not TSC, KNUT and KUPPET have really messed accountability issues, always crying victimization.

it is like those areas are doing well now. The problems at COAST and NEP are cultural. it is the job of the local community to build schools. I do not see why Nyanza with devolution cannot build good schools and where in particular in Nyanza are there marginalized kids?

[gout]

The Centre of Excellence in each constituency hasn't yielded much. Most funds are still being pumped into expansion of the 'good' schools and given they have better absorption capacities they are doing even better in infrastructural development. The dorm that was burnt at Moi Girls, for instance, is being said to be an 'expansion'. In most cases expansion  is a euphemism for congesting more students ready existing space.

[Kadame7]

The kid has been charged with murder. To think she did this as a way to coerce her parents to take her to a fancier school...now she'll likely end up at a much worse "school". Still much better off than her late dorm mates and the many girls with serious injuries.

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

The kid has been charged with murder. To think she did this as a way to coerce her parents to take her to a fancier school...now she'll likely end up at a much worse "school". Still much better off than her late dorm mates and the many girls with serious injuries.

Wow.  That is heartbreaking.  For both victims and this kid.

[KenyanPlato]

that is a serial killer

[Kadame7]

The kid has been charged with murder. To think she did this as a way to coerce her parents to take her to a fancier school...now she'll likely end up at a much worse "school". Still much better off than her late dorm mates and the many girls with serious injuries.

Wow.  That is heartbreaking.  For both victims and this kid.

Yes. The folly of youth. Her life is ruined. But then her friends are dead. Just a black affair all around. If she has a normal brain and this was just adolescence, she's still messed up because she'll live with this for ever.

[Kadame7]

that is a serial killer

She might be psycopathic. From the story, she seems rather grandiose, bullish, entitled and if she really did this, is unempathic as well. But then, I know many problem teens who were just that at around her age. They later grew out of it. Its hard to tell. But if she behaved as told, she is at least very disordered in a fundamental way. Maybe she was the victim of bullying herself...she's a rubble...who knows? Really sad.

[RV Pundit]

Parents should learn to listen to their kids.This African idea of acting tough n know it all don't work.Kids should be encouraged to speak their mind and be listened to...

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

Parents should learn to listen to their kids.This African idea of acting tough n know it all don't work.Kids should be encouraged to speak their mind and be listened to...

Actually someone thinks there is not enough of that toughness http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Moi-Girls--fire-victim-buried-amid-calls-to-reinstate-caning/1056-4098730-3214j2/index.html.

I think there should be some balance.  Be uncompromising when certain lines are crossed, but overall, be receptive to what they are trying to convey.  Let them learn that the world owes them nothing from a young age.  Part of the problem with school shootings in the US is because these kids simply do not get that simple fact.