A fire tore through a dormitory at a girls' school in a town in Kenya's Rift Valley early on Thursday, killing at least 16 pupils, the government has said.
The blaze broke out just after midnight at the Utumishi Girls' Academy Senior School in Gilgil, in western Kenya, and burned for more than two hours, Education Minister Julius Migos said.
He said 79 other pupils were injured, and that 71 of them have already been discharged from hospital. He added that an investigation has been launched into the cause of the fire.
Footage broadcast on Kenyan television showed broken windows and smoke-stained walls, while family members gathered outside the school gates to seek news of missing loved ones.
Police commander Masoud Mwinyi previously said 50 officers were searching areas near the school for pupils who may have fled when the fire broke out. “Out of that shock and fear and anxiety, many people went out, and it was at night,” he said.
Eunice Mureithi, whose daughter escaped the blaze, told the NTV channel that “the fire started from an upper dome and spread all over”.
“It had barricaded a part of the dome to one side and to the other side the students were unable to come out, but a lot of them were able to escape,” she added.
Fires are common at Kenyan schools, with more than 100 recorded in 2024. Many are set by pupils in protest against harsh discipline and poor conditions, researchers have found.
A fire in 2024 at a primary boarding school in nearby Nyeri County killed 21 pupils. Its cause was never conclusively established.
In the worst school fire of recent times, 67 boys were killed at Kyanguli Secondary School outside Nairobi in 2001, with authorities attributing the blaze to arson.
