39 Boys Arrested After 19 Girls Die in Attack at Kenya Boarding School
NAIROBI, Kenya — Police officers said Monday they have arrested 39 boys in connection with the deaths of 19 girls and the rape of dozens of others at a coeducational boarding school last week.
“The investigations are at a very active level. We are yet to decide which of the 39 pupils to charge, or what crimes to charge them for,†Police Commissioner Philip Kilonzo said.
Police said they believe they have arrested all the boys connected with the July 13 attack at St. Kizito school near the town of Meru, 110 miles north of Nairobi.
The boys apparently invaded the girls’ dormitory because the girls had refused to join student protests. Most of the girls who died apparently suffocated in a panicked scramble to escape from the boys. Medical examiners said 71 girls were raped.
Police last Friday charged three watchmen for failing to prevent the attack at the school. Education authorities suspended the headmaster and his deputy pending investigations and closed the school indefinitely.
St. Kizito school, run jointly by the state and the Roman Catholic Church, had 577 pupils--271 girls and 306 boys--aged 14 to 18.
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