🎬Set on fire

Good morning. Today, September 9th is the world’s most common birthday. It is estimated that about 1 in every 6800 people was born on this day. Now, to answer the most pressing questions on your lips;

• Yes, we’re disappointed the title didn’t go to November 14th, which would be exactly 9 months down the line from February 14th.

• Yes, we’re in support of renaming today as a National Labor Day.

— Geraldine Ndzomo, Tayo Davies.

THE BIG IDEA
Kenya has a fire problem. And it’s far from flaming out

It’s been quite the warm summer outing for Kenya: from setting the track and field stage in Paris on fire with gold medal performances to literally setting schools on fire.

This Saturday, firefighters struggled to put out a blaze at a girl’s school in Isiolo County in central Kenya. This came on only 48 hours after a similar fire incident happened at a primary school boarding facility in Nyeri County, 60 miles east where 21 pupils have been reported dead and a further 27, seriously injured.

Behind the scenes

While it is unclear what caused the fires, arson attacks have become an alarming national trend at Kenyan boarding schools. While a primary or secondary school would likely feature at the bottom of the pile of potential criminal hideouts, investigations have found that student arsonists are usually triggered by frustration at poor school conditions or teachers they perceive to be hostile.

Analysts have equally called out Kenya’s poor counseling system with record numbers of students involved in substance abuse. According to the NRCC, the practice has been fueled by peer pressure, which on its own, is believed to equally drive copycat behavior by students who learned of fire incidents in other schools.

We’ve heard this before. The incidents in the Nyeri and Isiolo county schools have joined a growing list of fireworks spectacles in Kenya. The most notorious was the 2001 Kyanguli secondary school fire which had a death toll of 67 students. Since then, there have been 3 major recorded arson attacks in Kenyan schools, claiming a total of 13 lives.

Arson isn’t big lawyer business in Kenya. Arson cases rarely result in trials or convictions. So far, only one culprit has been tried and given a jail term. Most other culprits are either never found or never tried.

Zoom out: It appears to be more than a school problem, with Olympian, Rebecca Cheptegei confirmed dead last week following an arson attack on her by partner. No charges have been brought forward so far. —GN.

DIGITS

SNIPPETS

In honor of deceased Ugandan runner Rebecca Cheptegei, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo has pledged to name a sports venue after her.

Better than expected. Despite rumors of an expected low turnout at the polls, Algerians defy the odds with a provisional voter turnout of 48%, in an electoral campaign many see as a rubber-stamp exercise to entrench President Tebboune for yet another term.

Too expensive. Congo cancels $1.2Bn national ID project following warnings from watchdog organizations about insanely high cost for the project quoted by biometrics provider, Afritech.

Call to action. UN top health official, Tedros Adhanom has called for increased public awareness and concern for Sudan’s health crisis. He described the situation as a “perfect storm of crises which the world is ignoring”.

Yikes. Dangote reclaims title of Africa’s richest person from South African billionaire, Johann Rupert following reports of the start of operations at his 650,000bpd refinery, the largest of its kind in Africa.