(Reuters) – A Kenyan student died and over 100 others were injured after an electricity transformer explosion caused a stampede on Sunday, amid tension a week after gunmen stormed another university campus, officials said.
The student who died was among others who jumped from residence halls as high as five floors up, fearing the University of Nairobi’s Kikuyu campus had come under attack, university vice chancellor Peter Mbithi told Reuters.
Gunmen from the al Qaeda-aligned group al Shabaab stormed Garissa University College, about 200 km (120 miles) from the Somali border, killing 148 people on April 2.
“We have lost one male student who fell from fifth floor,” Mbithi said outside the accidents and emergency section of the country’s main public hospital, Kenyatta National.
Witnesses said the transformer blew up after 4 am (9 p.m. EDT), 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.
