The Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) has demanded the immediate resignation of Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and the censure of the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Migos Ogamba, following the deaths of 16 students in a dormitory fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County.
“We demand 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, delivered by Nyandarua Senator John Methu who also serves as DCP Secretary General Designate, expressed profound condolences to the families of the victims.
They also criticized the government’s disaster preparedness and the actions of key Cabinet Secretaries in the hours following the tragedy.
“The Cabinet Secretary for Interior Kipchumba Murkomen must take personal responsibility for the loss of lives of the children who have died,” Methu said.
He added that CS Murkomen had been informed of the fire at 2am but failed to mobilize government resources or make the one-and-a-half-hour journey to the scene.
“The Cabinet Secretary is too important that he could not even drive, he chose to only fly and was waiting for the weather to clear up this morning,” he alleged.
The party also targeted the Education CS, questioning why it was easier to attend an event at Safari Park Hotel than to travel to Nakuru while students lay dead.
“What was so difficult for the Cabinet Secretary for Education to travel to Nakuru compared to going to Safari Park Hotel when our girls have died in large numbers? Where is empathy?” Methu questioned.
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 provided 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 stalled 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 favor 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 nearby, how safe are our children in other parts of the country?” Methu questioned.
He called on the nation to seriously examine the safety of boarding schools across Kenya.