At least 15 students dead after fire at girls’ school in Kenya, police say

A fire tore through a dormitory at a girls’ school in a town in Kenya’s Rift Valley overnight, killing at least 15 students, police say.

An unknown number of students were also injured at Utumishi Girls’ Academy Senior School in Gilgil in Nakuru County, the Gilgil Police Station says in a report seen by Reuters. The cause of the fire was not known, it says.

Footage aired by Citizen Television shows broken window panes and smoke-stained walls.

The aftermath of the dormitory fire at Utumishi Girls' High School in Gilgil pic.twitter.com/s5AyXNrT7C

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Kenya has a long history of school fires, with more than 60 cases of arson in public secondary schools recorded in 2018 alone, according to government data. Many of the fires have been set by students protesting harsh discipline and poor conditions, researchers have found.

Masoud Mwinyi, a senior police commander, tells reporters at the school that 50 officers were combing areas around the school for students who may have fled when the fire broke out.

“Of that shock and fear and anxiety, many people went out, and it was at night,” he says.