A fire that broke out in the early hours of Thursday morning at a girls' boarding school in Kenya has killed at least 16 students and injured 79 others, reigniting urgent questions about fire safety in the country's schools. The blaze tore through a dormitory at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, a town in Nakuru County in Kenya's Rift Valley region, approximately 120 kilometres north-west of the capital Nairobi. Around 220 students were sleeping in the dormitory when the fire started on the building's upper floor; more than 800 students were on the school's grounds overall.

First responders described scenes of chaos and desperation. Doors on the upper floor were initially locked, trapping students inside, and some girls died or were seriously injured after jumping from windows to escape the flames. Multiple survivors told rescue workers that a student had lit a mattress with a match, though no motive has been established. Authorities, including the head of Kenya's Directorate of Criminal Investigations, are actively investigating the cause. Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen, who was among officials at the scene, urged the public to avoid speculation. Education Minister Julius Migos Ogamba confirmed that 71 of the 79 injured students had already been discharged from hospital. The school has links to Kenya's National Police Service, and many of its pupils are children of officers.

Anxious parents gathered outside the school throughout Thursday, many struggling to confirm whether their children were safe. "We trusted this school with our children. Right now we don't even know who is alive," one parent told reporters. A distraught mother, Leila Matura, said her 18-year-old daughter remained unaccounted for hours after the fire. President William Ruto offered his condolences on social media, writing that "no words can truly ease the pain of losing young lives filled with promise, hope and dreams for the future."

The tragedy is the latest in a long and troubling pattern of fatal school fires in Kenya, where boarding schools are widespread — a legacy of missionary and British colonial education practices. A fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County in September 2024 killed 21 boys; nine girls died in a school fire in Kibera, Nairobi's largest informal settlement, in 2017; and Kenya's deadliest school fire on record, in 2001, claimed 67 lives in Machakos County. Government data recorded more than 100 school fires in 2024 alone. Researchers have found that many are set deliberately by students protesting strict discipline and poor living conditions, while overcrowding and inadequate safety infrastructure — including barred windows and inward-opening doors — have repeatedly worsened casualties.

A 2022 report by Kenya's auditor general found that most state secondary schools were ill-equipped to handle fires, and a 2024 government safety review found that dormitories commonly had grilles on windows and single, obstructed exits. Following that review, the education ministry said it had closed around 350 schools for failing to meet safety standards. Minister Ogamba pledged on Thursday that inspections would continue, but for many parents and observers, the recurring death toll suggests that promises of reform have so far outpaced meaningful action.