Reuters —
A fire broke out overnight in a dormitory at a girls’ school in Kenya’s Rift Valley town, killing 16 students, the government said Thursday.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, but it broke out just after midnight at Utumisi Girls’ Academy High School in Gilgil in central Kenya and continued to burn for more than two hours, Education Minister Julius Migos told reporters.
He said 79 other students were injured, but 71 of them have been released from hospital.
Footage shown on Kenyan television showed broken windows and smoke-stained walls as families gathered outside the school gates searching for news of their missing loved ones.
Fires are common in Kenyan schools, with the government saying more than 100 fires will be recorded in 2024. Researchers have found that many of the arson attacks are carried out by students protesting harsh discipline and poor conditions.
“The investigation continues, but the cause of the fire (at Utsumi Girls’ School) has not yet been determined,” Migos said.
In 2024, a fire at a primary boarding school in nearby Nyeri County killed 21 students. The cause was not conclusively established.
“The fire started in the upper dome and during that time it spread throughout,” Eunice Mureishi, whose daughter escaped the fire, told NTV television station about part of the school’s structure.
“Part of the dome was barricaded on one side, so students couldn’t get out, but many were able to escape.”
The deadliest recent school fire killed 67 boys at Kyanguri Secondary School on the outskirts of Nairobi in 2001, in what authorities attributed to arson.
