Precious Talents School owner Moses Wainaina arrested

Precious Talents School owner Moses Wainaina has been arrested over the building collapse that left eight pupils dead and 64 others injured.

Mr. Wainaina was arrested on Thursday evening and detained at Kabete Police Station pending arraignment.

His arrest came soon after the government shut down the school and directed that the pupils be transferred to Ngong Forest Primary School, Jamhuri Primary School and Riruta Satellite Primary School.

Education CS Prof. George Magoha said the Ministry of Education will provide desks and books for the learners at their new schools.

Earlier the Education CS had indicated that there was malpractice in the construction of the ill-fated two-storey structure and the tragedy would have been avoided had the rules been followed.

Addressing the press on Monday after the incident occurred, Prof. Magoha said owners of the school constructed an additional floor to the single-storey building without seeking approval, placing the pupils’ lives in danger.

“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.”

CS Magoha had previously directed that Precious Talents School be closed for a week to allow for investigations into the Monday morning tragedy.