Dormitory fire at Kenyan girls’ school kills at least 16 students

Original article by Rachel Savage and agencies

A fire has ripped through a dormitory at a girls’ school in Kenya’s Rift valley, killing at least 16 students.

The fire broke out just after midnight at Utumishi girls academy in Gilgil, Nakuru county, about 76 miles north-west of Nairobi, according to police.

The education minister, Julius Migos Ogamba, told reporters that 79 other students were injured, although 71 of them had already been discharged from hospital. Ogamba said: “Investigations are ongoing, but the ... cause of the fire is not yet identified.”

Students at the school are between 15 and 18 years old, and about 220 girls were sleeping in the dormitory at the time.

The tragedy is the latest fatal fire at a school in Kenya in recent years. In 2024, 21 boys were killed at a boarding school in central Kenya when a fire tore through their dormitory, while in 2017 nine girls died in a blaze at a school in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi.

In 2016, there were about 120 incidents of students setting fire to their sleeping quarters. A 2022 report by the country’s auditor general found that most state secondary schools were not prepared to deal with fires.

The Kenyan Red Cross said on X that the blaze in Gilgil was reported at about 3.30am on Thursday. “Several students have been evacuated and are receiving treatment in various hospitals,” it said. “A multi-agency response involving the county fire brigade, county disaster response teams, @PoliceKE and Kenya Red Cross remains ongoing.”

Masoud Mwinyi, an assistant to the deputy inspector general of Kenya’s police, told local media that officers were searching for pupils who may have escaped the fire but were still unaccounted for. “We are combing the area because out of that shock and fear and anxiety, many people went out and it was at night,” he said.

Dozens of parents gathered at the school on Thursday morning, frantically searching for news of their children.

Wambui Nderitu told the BBC her niece had survived the fire but broken her leg. She added: “Some of those at the top floor had to jump out, that’s why they are injured.”

• This article was amended on 28 May 2026. An earlier version said Gilgil was north-east of Nairobi; in fact, it is north-west of the capital.