Kenya: Sixteen students killed in school fire, local police say
Akisa Wandera,BBC Africa, NairobiAnd
Basillioh Rukanga,Nairobi
Robert Maïna
Sixteen students were killed in a fire at a boarding school in Gilgil, about 120 kilometers west of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, a police officer told reporters at the scene.
Seventy-four other students are hospitalized after being injured, he added.
The fire at the Utumishi girls’ school broke out early Thursday morning, while students were sleeping, according to the Kenya Red Cross and police.
Police said search and rescue operations were underway and authorities had not yet established the cause of the fire. The Kenya Red Cross said emergency services were on scene to offer support.
“It’s a sad and distressing situation,” said police commander Masoud Mwinyi, addressing parents and the crowd outside the school.
Fires are not uncommon in Kenyan boarding schools, with several fatal incidents reported in recent years. Many are the result of arson, with disgruntled students – angry at discipline and living conditions – being blamed, while others are the result of an accident.
Overcrowding in dormitories and failure to follow safety guidelines, such as keeping exits clear and windows open, have often been blamed for the high number of casualties.
Police said the fire in Gilgil broke out around 1 a.m. local time (2200 GMT Wednesday) and gutted a dormitory housing around 220 students.
Mwinyi said some students fled to neighboring areas during the chaos and were still being sought.
“As we speak, our officers are combing the area as some students fled in shock and fear during the night,” he said.
Mwinyi said investigations were ongoing. The school was sealed off, with only parents allowed to enter the grounds.
Wambui Nderitu, whose cousin is a student at the school, said family members who came to the scene were met with confusion and fear.
“When we arrived at the school, we were told to queue. Most of us were very worried because we heard that some students had died and others were injured and hospitalized.”
She said some students were injured after jumping from the upper floor of the dormitory while trying to escape.
“Some of those on the top floor must have jumped, that’s why they are injured.”
Nderitu said his cousin survived the fire but had a broken leg. “I found her… she’s fine… but she has a broken leg,” she explained.
Kenya has a long history of school fires, with the deadliest occurring in 2001, when 67 students died in Machakos County, southeast of the capital, after some students set fire to a dormitory.
In 2024, at least 21 people died in a dormitory fire in central Kenya and similar incidents in 2022 and 2017 resulted in deaths and destruction at schools.
In November 2021, the Department for Education published a response to a parliamentary committee which had requested more information on arson attacks in schools and revealed that there had been 126 such cases between January and November 2020.
The Reuters news agency cites a 2018 study that found 60 cases of arson were recorded that year.
Getty Images/BBC
