Everything around the Utumishi Academy tragedy starts and ends with one harsh reality: Sixteen girls are gone. Sixteen children who were in school as expected, who went to bed in their dormitory like any other night, did not wake up to another morning of school.
The entire country is heartbroken. Questions abound, accusations are flying, everyone is desperate to find meaning out of this. But what is making this tragedy harder to process is the allegation that the fire may have been started by fellow students.
And so the rage, the questions and despair becomes harder to process because what do you do when children engage in actions that cause this much pain and devastation? What can society do to make sense of it let alone ensure justice is served?
If the cause had been structural failure, negligence or even malfunction, the emotional weight, while still heavy, would have been easier to carry because then, there would be an institution, an adult to answer. Our anger would be directed to identifiable adult systems like the school administration or even the government knowing restitution was possible. But when the alleged perpetrators are children, what does justice even look like?
What will feel like justice for the families and friends of the girls we have lost? Some people are calling for the harshest possible punishment. Others are demanding that they be tried as adults despite the fact that our legal system does not have such a provision. Others still argue that regardless of the magnitude of their alleged actions, the law takes its course within the framework of the juvenile system. But beyond all these views, the biggest question remains: Can punishment alone explain, let alone prevent, what has happened?
Perhaps the most important conversation we can have right now is one that can bring healing and restoration to all parties while at the same time ensuring this does not happen again.
Schools, beyond being institutions of learning, are essentially second homes for students. They are the place where they spend most of their formative years growing, discovering themselves and developing their character. Yet students still turn against the very institutions designed to nurture them.
What is it about some school environments that breed such deep frustration or resentment? Are there structural and management issues that remain unaddressed? Could it be that we are not paying enough attention to the emotional and psychological wellbeing of students before stress and discontent manifest in such destructive ways?
It is easy to place the blame solely on schools but children do not arrive there as black slates. They come from communities that shape their emotional and social perspectives long before the school can come in. Families remain the first point of formation. It is from their homes that they learn boundaries, empathy, patience, restraint and accountability.
Unfortunately, modern parenting has parents operating in survival mode. The economic and social pressures leave little time for meaningful engagement that would offer first hand understanding of these children. Because of that, children are growing up unsupervised with gadgets and channels we gladly pay for.
The community, the village, no longer exists. Digital platforms have become core educators offering diverse influence while anchoring them to none. We have allowed so many guidance structures to break down yet express shock when the outcomes reflect the same.
None of this removes responsibility from individuals when they do wrong. But acknowledging individual responsibility should not stop us from questioning the environment that shaped those choices in the first place.
Both sets of parents in this tragedy are now living a level of grief they may never fully recover from. The scars are for a lifetime. Utumishi Academy may rebuild. The institution may rise again from the ashes. But the questions raised by this tragedy will remain long after society moves on.
We must be willing to examine honestly and without deflection, what is happening in the spaces where our children are being raised. The real test is not how we deal with the seven girls accused of causing the fire but to ensure that no child ever crosses the line that leads to such devastating loss and destruction.
Ms Wekesa is a development communication consultant
