Endarasha Fire: Family Of Another Missing Boy Painfully Seeks Help To Find Him

• Travis Kariuki, a 13-year-old boy from Hillside Endarasha Academy, went missing on the day the school dormitory went up in flames
• According to his aunt Anne, when the news broke, she sent her father and brother to go and look for him, and they learnt that he made it outside the gate but later disappeared
• The young boy lost both his parents years back, and families from both sides shared that they had not been given any information by the school or the police

Two Kenyan families are in distress after an orphaned child under their care got lost when a dormitory at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri county went up in flames.

What happened to Travis Kariuki?

Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, his aunt Anne, who is out of the country, shared that she saw news of the fire on Facebook and immediately reached out to her father and brother back in Kenya.

"When they went to the school, they learnt that Travis ran out of the burning building with a friend, but when they reached outside the gate, the schoolmate realised that the Grade Seven boy was nowhere to be found. He has remained missing to this day," said Anne.

According to Anne, the 13-year-old boy lost his mother when he was in Class Two.

"As a family, we are in a dilemma. He lives with his father's aunt and she has brought him up as her own child; he calls her mum despite knowing that she is not his biological mum," said Anne.

Did Anne's family get information from the government?

When TUKO.co.ke sought to find out if they had checked among the children who had sadly lost their lives, Anne revealed that her relatives never found his body there.

She also said they had not heard anything from the government or the Hillside Endarasha management.

The family is now calling on Kenyans to keep their eyes open and report to them or the nearest police station in case they encounter the young man.

Outrage as DCI reports no Endarasha pupil is missing

Meanwhile, Kenyans expressed dissatisfaction with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations' statement saying that no pupil was missing after the Hillside Endarasha Academy fire.

The DCI issued a statement accounting for all the boys who were at Hillside Endarasha Academy during the fire.

They further reported that the school initially had 164 boarding boys, but eight did not return when schools reopened.

Aftermath of Hillside Endarasha fire

• TUKO.co.ke shared a timeline of events that have characterised one of the deadliest school fires in Kenya in recent times
• John Mwangi shared his bitter-sweet story as he joined other parents to identify their kin at the Naromoru Level 4 Hospital. According to Mwangi, he found one boy, but another was missing.
• Irene Wanjiru expressed her anxiety at the lack of adequate information about the Hillside Endarasha Academy fire incident

Proofreading by Mercy Nyambura Guthua, journalist and copy editor at TUKO.co.ke