I walk out of class to cry: Teacher relives agony after losing son in Endarasha fire
By Cynthia Lodite, September 5, 2025Cyrus Chege, a parent to a pupil scorched to death at the Hillside Endarasha school fire inferno, has come out sharing his painful memories of his son, Roy Muturi, a Class VI pupil, who died in the blaze that gutted a dormitory on the night of September 5, 2024.
Cyrus, who is a teacher at a boys’ school, has revealed how his son’s loss has affected him in his daily schoolwork. He recounts moments when he gets to see his son Roy in the eyes of his learners, and sometimes he has to walk out of the class and break down.
Chege, who is now demanding that the government release the findings of investigations into the tragedy to help him find closure, made his remarks on Friday, September 5, 2025, exactly one year after the inferno, during an interview with a local radio station.
“You can imagine, I’m a teacher, and I teach boys. Sometimes I see a boy who resembles my son, and I have to walk out of class because I don’t want those boys seeing me breaking down,” Chege said.
He noted, “The pain that we go through every day—some parents, like for Timothy, whose was the only child, you can imagine how they are feeling.”
Relocation after the Endarasha tragedy
Chege has further revealed that the tragedy forced him to relocate his family in a move to begin the healing journey.
“Are we going to heal and have a life to live? We have kids. Some of us had to relocate; I had to relocate my family,” Chege stated.
On his part, Chege recalled how his younger son, now 7, is still struggling with the acceptance of the loss of his brother, revealing that he does not want to hear anything about Roy because of the memories.
“And they’re not going to heal; for instance, my son, who is seven years old, does not want to hear anything about Roy because of the memories,” Chege said.
He also added, “They don’t visit home; even my wife does not go home just because they’re going to see the grave, while my small girl talks about Roy being there because I have surrounded and fenced that area.”
“And they know the brother is there; we left him there, so what are we going to tell our kids? What next, given that even at present, you don’t have answers for the most basic of questions? because we have failed to get that information from the government,” Chege noted.
And as the families mark one year since the tragedy struck, Chege is now calling upon different organizations to help them find justice in the corridors of justice.
“The only thing that we can do is now go into the corridors of justice; that is why we are inviting the different organizations to come in because they are our kids,” Chege stated.