Mama Ngina School students sent home after failed arson attack

More than 700 students of Mama Ngina Girls High School in Mombasa were sent home on Wednesday following a foiled arson attack. 

The school was also closed indefinitely as police started investigating the incident, the first to be reported in Mombasa County.
Mama Ngina Girls is the only girls’ national school in the county. 

“We rushed to the school and held a crisis meeting with the management. The fire was noticed at around 5am at the ablution block where there are beddings,” Mombasa County Education director Peter Magiri said. 

Parents who received information about the fire rushed to the school to check on their children.

“I am glad the girls are safe but we need information about what really happened," said one of the parents. 

Next year, the school is set to be relocated to Shimo La Tewa in Shanzu where a new complex is almost complete. 

In 2018, President Uhuru Kenyatta issued Sh100 million for the new campus.  

According to the master plan, the school will form a U shape, including the administration and tuition blocks and hostels with a capacity of 1,200 students. 

Mama Ngina, established in 1988 as a public double-streamed boarding school, is housed on less than an acre of land at Kizingo in Mombasa.

It also lacks a playground.  

The Nation could not reach Principal Mwanamisi Omar for comment on the fire incident.