• They have named the school’s board chairman, the Kakamega county education officer and Attorney General as respondents in the suit.
· They want the government to compensate their children for exposing them to defective, dangerous and low maintained condition at the school.
Image: DPPS
The parents of the 15 pupils who died in a stampede at Kakamega Primary School more than a year ago have filed a case in court seeking compensation.
The case was filed through Ondego Garo Advocates at the Kakamega chief magistrate's court on April 9.
The parents want the government to compensate their children for exposing them to defective, dangerous and low maintained conditions in the school.
In court papers, they say their children were healthy and had a promising future of becoming important citizens of society, but their lives were tragically cut short due to negligence by the school.
“Prior to their death, the children used to support their parents. They had a promising future from their report forms and academic activities. The plaintiff therefore shall claim for the losses suffered by the estate of the deceased minors,” the court papers read.
They have named the school’s board chairman, the Kakamega county education officer and the Attorney General as respondents in the suit.
The 15 pupils, who died in the evening panic flight on February 3, 2020, were aged between 9 and 12 years. They were in Standard 4 and 5. Thirty-eight others suffered fractures and soft tissue injuries.
Those who died are Jane Kiverenge, Bertha Munywele, Salima Olaso, Verm Prince, Samuel Simekha, Fidel Atamba, Catherine Aloo, Joseph Mutsami, Venessa Andeso, Antonatte Khayumbi, Lydia Laventa, Prudence Eliza, Simon Waweru, Nicole Achola and Junne Nakhumicha.
The parents argue that the accident arose solely due to negligence and failure to employ duty of care on the pupils' population by the respondents, and are therefore liable jointly and severally.
They cite the large population at the school, the narrow and dark staircases, which they say are incapable of accommodating or serving the population.
They further say failure to meet safety standards was part of negligence by the respondents.
The parents say the respondents were liable for acts of omission and negligence that caused the pupils' deaths by exposing them to dangerous, defective and deplorable conditions.
The suing parents include Ibrahim Kiverenge and his wife Jerusa, Irene Ambundo, Joyce Mabuko, Zaituni Bakari, Laventa Andeso, Grace Ayako, Diana Atamba, Lucy Mugamani and Jacob Mutsami.
Others are Daniel Otiti, Mactildah Musambi and husband Feustus Khayumbi, Mark Barasa and Fridah Anindo, Francis Kuria and Evelyn Njeri, Dalmas Mayasi and Juliet Wishenga. All the parents are listed as witnesses in the suit.
The suit will be mentioned in the Kakamega chief magistrate court on November 29 for further directions.
“We have tried to seek redress from the school and the county education office under the Ministry of Education, but no good deed has come, thus making this suit necessary,” Kiverenge and Ambundo say in a joint statement on behalf of the other parents.
They say despite suffering mental trauma from losing their children, the school has not followed up to console or compensate them.
They say they were left with no option but to take the legal route, since it is more than a year since the tragedy happened.
The two say they will seek leave of court to testify on behalf of others in the suit.
Postmortem reports indicate the 15 children died from asphyxia following the stampede. Asphyxia occurs when the body is deprived of oxygen, causing unconsciousness or death.
Kakamega County Referral Hospital pathologist Dickson Muchana, who conducted the postmortem, said the deceased had problems with the lungs caused by the pile-up of pupils during the stampede.
In June last year, the Director of Public Prosecutions directed that investigations into the cause of the stampede be conducted through a public inquest.
Prosecution counsel Erick Mutua says in a report on the file forwarded for direction by the Western DCI office that the matter be placed before a magistrate under Section 386 of the Criminal Procedure Code for formal closure by way of a public inquest.
“I find that there is no clear criminal act that has been committed that is evident. No persons have been mentioned in connection with the stampede as well. This was an unfortunate event and innocent children lost their lives,” he says.
Mutua says that people who recorded statements did not directly witness what occurred.
During a funeral service for the victims in Bukhungu Stadium on February 7, Western leaders led by Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang'ula called for a public inquest into the deaths.
Wetang'ula said the event at the school was beyond the DCI and only an inquest would unravel the cause of the stampede.
Edited by A.N