Nuru na Uhai..These two words are the motto of my Alma Matter Moi Girls School Nairobi. In Swahili they translate to Light and Life. If you went to high school in Kenya you must be familiar with the nickname your school had. Chalks, Bush, Patch, Changes, Pango, Stato , Kotet, Boma the list is endless - each with a story behind the name.Ours was Kabbz, Quabbz, Cabbz - whichever way you spelt it the joke was that they served cabbages daily and as a "rubble" yup more Kenyan high school lingo - a Form one is basically the dust / rubble on the ground - you had that to look forward to in the DH. Cabbages were the one thing I dreaded the most - I loathed cabbages. To me I found cabbages tasted like paper dipped in water. But four years after my stay at Moi Girls they became a delicacy - I guess the "chefs" at our school had perfected the art after cooking them over and over again.
They say you form lasting friendships in college. I think high school is where the meat and potatoes of friendships is. Specifically in form one. Each and every person who walked through the green gates of Kabbz slept in a communal dorm known as "Kabarnet." Oh did I mention we were not the only girls of the then president Moi. He had his girls in Isinya, he had Moi Girls Eldoret we were his "Nairobi girls" It was only fitting that one of the dorms was named after his hometown Kabarnet which we called Kaba.
On September 2nd Kaba was set on fire. 9 form ones lost their lives and 50 more were injured. The news had so much grief as parents and friends of the deceased grappled with the loss of their loved ones. The parents of some of the students are still trying to locate their loved ones through DNA testing.
There are many discussions making the rounds regarding the tragedy. How long the fire department got to arrive, how the arsonist had clearly opposition defiance that went unchecked, one conversation even politicized the whole thing.
I think the most important thing  at the moment is just be present. Be present for the 9 families that are grieving, be present for the 51 girls who were injured. Be present for the rest of the girls in the school as a whole. Sit with them in their grief as long as they need. PTSD is real, the trauma of reliving a painful experience is just that - painful. And so after the dust settles, the cameras leave Moi Girls and move on to a new story, that is when the girls will need to be lifted up the most.Those girls in the other hostels who came to the rescue, the girls who managed to escape will need strength to get through the tough days because they will come