Sentencing of girl who started the 2017 Moi Girls School dorm fire postponed.
A Nairobi court postponed the sentencing of a student who started a fire that killed ten of her colleagues at Moi Girls School in Nairobi in 2017 until January 14.
This comes after the probation officer informed Milimani deputy registrar Jane Kamau that the girl’s report was not complete.
Kamau ordered that the case be mentioned on January 14 to confirm whether or not the probation officer’s report is complete.
Justice Stella Mutuku found the student, now 18 years old, guilty of manslaughter in December last year.
On Monday, the judge did not sit.
The accused was 14 years old at the time of the incident. She was housed in the Kabarnet dormitory, which was the site of the inferno.
The young lady has been detained at Langata Women’s Prison.
In convicting her, Justice Mutuku stated that the accused did not start the fire with the intention of killing her classmates, but rather in a desperate attempt to be transferred from the school by any means possible.
“Her aim may have been just to cause a fire and burn the building without hurting anyone, but it was ill-intentioned, given that the building had two floors and there were going to be casualties as a result of the fire,” she said.
According to the judge, the accused may have overlooked the consequences of her actions due to her naiveté.
Her attempt to rouse some of her friends was intended to save them from the fire.
The judge stated that because the prosecution failed to prove the element of malice aforethought, he was unable to find the accused guilty of murder.
The accused was found not guilty of murder on all ten counts she was charged with.
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“She is hereby acquitted of the 10 counts of murder she is facing. Instead, I find the offence proved beyond a reasonable doubt to be manslaughter in all the 10 counts.”
On September 1, 2017, the Kabarnet dormitory was destroyed by an inferno, killing ten students who had just returned to school and leaving their families heartbroken over the loss of their daughters.
Sentencing of girl who started the 2017 Moi Girls School dorm fire postponed.
