Fire rips through dormitory at girl's school in Kenya, killing at least 16 students

An injured student is evacuated following an early morning fire outbreak at Utumishi Girls School in the Gilgil area, central Kenya, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

GILGIL, Kenya — A fire ripped through a dormitory in a girls’ boarding school in central Kenya on Thursday, killing at least 16 students, a government official said, in the latest such incident to afflict the East African nation.

Education Minister Julius Ogamba said Thursday that 79 others were injured at the Utumishi Girls School, which has more than 800 students in the Gilgil area of central Kenya.

The cause has not yet been established. Ogamba said authorities would investigate whether the school’s fire safety manual had been adhered to.

Police said they were leading the rescue and emergency response efforts at the school, which is located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the capital, Nairobi.

The government-owned secondary school is managed and sponsored by the Kenya Police Service. Many of the students are daughters of police officers.

The victims have not yet been identified.

One person at the scene, Wambui Nderitu, arrived to check on her cousin, who is a student at the school. She said she heard that the matron opened one of two dormitory doors “without alerting the children to exit.”

“The second door remained closed, and even though my cousin escaped with a leg injury, we’ve been told many children are injured and some died,” Nderitu said.

The Kenya Red Cross said several students were evacuated and are receiving treatment in various hospitals.

The group said it deployed “tracing and psychosocial support teams to support affected students and families.”

Kenya’s deadliest school fire in recent history occurred in 2001 when 67 students died in a dormitory fire in Machakos County.

In 2024, 21 students burned to death in a school fire in central Kenya. President William Ruto declared three days of mourning.

In 2017, 10 students died in a school fire in Nairobi. A student was charged with murder.

Evelyne Musambi, The Associated Press