School fires are a cry for help, not just a crime

Many arson cases remain unsolved, leaving victims without justice or compensation. The problem continues because blaming the Ministry of Education, schools, or students has not helped. We need practical solutions that can restore trust, safety, and confidence in residential schools. Clearly identifying the problem is the first step toward finding real answers. To rebuild trust in boarding schools, we need more than just punishment. By examining the root causes (such as students’ vulnerabilities and the roles of parents and teachers), it introduces mediation as a proactive, restorative approach to help prevent arson and restore confidence in schools.

Times have changed, and so must our solutions.

Over the years, issues like indiscipline, bullying, and arson have affected boarding schools. In the 90s, some students looked forward to joining with a new metal box, treats, and a sense of independence. For others, it meant being separated from busy families with little contact. However, paying school fees and boarding does not guarantee good behaviour. Although students can grow and learn, these positives are now overshadowed by a surge in arson cases, which have hurt the reputation of boarding schools in Kenya.

When you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Students react in different ways to the pressures they face, which may lead to fatigue, trauma, or depression. Fast changes in values, technology, and generational differences have created new challenges that old traditions cannot fix. In the 90s, problems like bullying, poor food, harsh punishments, and unfriendly staff were common. However, today’s students deal with different challenges and triggers, showing how much things have changed.

Students today face different experiences and triggers than those in the past. As economic gaps grow, society often overlooks the real problems children face, which are made worse by teachers’ own difficulties. This generation is more self-aware and assertive, seeking justice where earlier generations may not have. Sometimes, negative behaviours like bullying or arson appear in places meant to shape future leaders. We should ask: who holds parents, cooks, prefects, and teachers responsible for the emotional harm they cause?

Why would students set fire to a dormitory with their classmates inside?

The solution is not found in courts or prisons. Instead, we need to look at what students do when they have nowhere safe to turn. Some may turn to suicide, reckless behaviour, or arson. Pressures like finishing the syllabus, sexual harassment, competing with wealthier or more popular students, poor learning conditions, family problems, child abuse, packed school calendars, drug abuse, loss of a parent, trauma, harsh punishments, bullying, and conflicts with strict teachers are, according to experts, the main reasons behind arson in Kenyan schools.

Students often have to take sudden breaks from learning because of disagreements between teachers’ unions and the government over pay, or because of long, unexpected holidays. This makes it very hard for them to keep up with the school calendar, creating a domino effect of problems.

Fire drills and punishments do not stop arson in schools. Legal action does not change behaviour, and prisons only remove people from society instead of helping them improve. Reform should come first, with prison as a last option. Seeing children lost to fires should push us to act. Parents, teachers, and students need to have real conversations before turning to the ministry or the law. These fires are cries for help in a busy society that often ignores children’s voices.

The Human Cost of Ignoring Children’s Voices

When children are only suspended from school or sent away, their unresolved trauma can affect their future relationships, families, workplaces, and communities. I remember when I was in standard three, drawing the parts of a plant. Like any nine-year-old, I knew a plant has a flower, fruit, leaf, stem, and roots. But when I finished, my science teacher was not impressed and made the whole class laugh by saying, ‘Do plants from your village look like that?’Society sees the results in adults who are disconnected from morality because they were left to cope alone as children.

What matters most is not what you say or do, but how you make someone feel-that is what people remember. For other students, it might not be an ugly plant drawing, but instead the ridicule, harsh comments, beatings from prefects and teachers, or forced labour that damaged their self-esteem, confidence, and emotional intelligence, and in extreme cases, even caused brain damage. In a society divided by economic inequality, some parents send children as young as nine to boarding school. It may be time to think about setting age limits for boarding schools. While the Children’s Act and Sexual Offences Act set standards for certain abuses, simply closing residential schools will not fix these deep-rooted problems.

Consider mediation as part of the solution

Helping our children starts with understanding our values and attitudes toward them. Article 21(3) of the Constitution of Kenya recognises that youth and children are vulnerable. By creating real ways to manage and resolve conflicts, students, parents, and teachers can begin a meaningful journey toward restorative justice for schools and for students affected by arson.

Mediation gives schools a practical way to deal with the tensions that can lead to arson. By providing safe spaces for students to speak up and work through conflicts together, schools can meet the needs of students, parents, and teachers before problems get worse. Mediation encourages accountability, positive discipline, and conflict-resolution skills, which are all important for preventing arson and making schools safer.

Paula is a FIDA-Kenya Member and an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.