Magoha orders temporary closure of Precious Talent School

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha has directed that Precious Talent School in Nairobi be closed temporarily following the Monday morning tragedy that left several pupils dead.

A two-storey building housing classrooms at Precious Talent School collapsed at around 6.50am killing seven pupils and leaving 64 others injured.

Addressing the media at the school that had 800 pupils, Prof. Magoha said the learners should take a one week break as investigations into the incident continue.

“We have consulted and agreed that all the children should rest until next Monday during which time investigations will have been done, buildings reinspected again thoroughly by professionals, then we will give an informed advice that may go in the direction of perhaps children coming back to classes that are safe or going to public primary schools the furthest of which is only 2 kilometres away,” said Magoha.

The Education CS called on the public to be patient and allow for investigations to take place, even as he hinted that owners of the school might have irregularly constructed the ill-fated structure.

“I have been to all the other classrooms and in my most humble opinion they are stable. So if a spade must be called a spade ahead of the investigations, you notice that somebody went and build another storey on top of the temporary structure. If you go ahead and do so without anybody’s approval I think we should be fair to each other including being fair to government,” said Magoha.

“If the owners of this school had remained with a single-storey building this accident should not have occurred. If we were working in an ideal situation, they should have come to ask for approval from the ministry which I can guarantee you they would not have gotten.”

The Education CS expressed his condolences to the families of the affected children, describing the incident as isolated and unfortunate.

“So far we have regrettably lost seven young lives in this incident. May the good lord rest their souls in perfect peace,” said Magoha.

According to the CS, 64 learners are admitted at the Kenyatta National Hospital — 62 of them with soft tissue injuries while two require more attention.