At least 16 people died and 73 others were hospitalised after a fire swept through a girls’ school dormitory in Kenya early Thursday, according to a police source quoted by AFP.
The fire broke out at around 1:00am local time at Utumishi Girls Academy in Nakuru County, nearly 120 kilometres north of the capital Nairobi.
Authorities said the blaze started in a dormitory where around 220 girls were sleeping at the time.
Officials could not immediately confirm whether all the victims were children.
A spokesperson for the Kenyan Red Cross told AFP that emergency responders, ambulance teams and support personnel rushed to the scene, but did not confirm casualty figures.
The school has links to Kenya’s National Police Service and is located in an area that hosts several military and training facilities.
Local media reported that anxious parents gathered outside the school while authorities restricted access to the buildings.
Kenya has witnessed several deadly school fires over the years, particularly in boarding schools, which remain common in the country due to the legacy of British colonial and missionary education systems.
In 2024, a dormitory fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County killed 21 boys.
Investigators previously accused students of deliberately starting some school fires. A report showed 63 arson incidents occurred in schools in 2018 alone.
A 2017 report by Kenya’s National Crime Research Centre linked the incidents to exam pressure, long academic terms and communication between students through smuggled mobile phones, which sometimes triggered copycat acts.
Following the deadly 2024 school fire, the Kenyan government promised safety audits at all schools and vowed legal action against those who violated safety regulations.
