Exploding transformer at Kenyan university triggers deadly stampede

One Kenyan student died and more than 100 others were injured after an exploding electricity transformer caused a stampede on Sunday. Tensions are still high a week after gunmen stormed another university campus, officials said, and the explosion was mistaken for the start of a new attack. The student who died was among others who jumped from as high as five floors up, fearing the University of Nairobi’s Kikuyu campus was being invaded, university vice chancellor Peter Mbithi told Reuters.

We have lost one male student who fell from fifth floor.

University vice chancellor Peter Mbithi

Witnesses said the transformer blew up after 4am, setting off terrified screams from the women’s wing of a dormitory. The panic spread to the men’s wing, where students woke up and scrambled to get out.

Africa