Dormitory fire at Kenyan school kills at least 15 students | Kenya
According to the police, at least 15 students died and dozens were injured in a fire that broke out overnight in the dormitories of a girls’ school in Kenya.
Gilgil police station said at least 15 girls died at the Utumishi girls academy in Gilgil in Nakuru district, about 120 kilometers northeast of Nairobi, according to a police report seen by Reuters.
A police source told Agence France-Presse that 16 people, mostly children, died and 73 people were hospitalized. The cause of the fire that broke out in the dormitory where approximately 220 girls stayed has not yet been determined.
The tragedy is the latest fatal fire at a Kenyan school in recent years. in 2024 21 boys were killed In 2017, nine girls died in a fire at a school in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, while they were at boarding school when a fire broke out in their dormitory in central Kenya.
In 2016, there was an incident when approximately 120 students set fire to their sleeping rooms. A 2022 report by the nation’s auditor general found that most of the state’s secondary schools were unprepared to fight fires.
Kenya Red Cross said on X It was stated that the fire in Gilgil was reported around 3.30 am on Thursday. “Many students were evacuated and treated in various hospitals,” the statement said. “A multi-agency response involving the district fire department, district disaster response teams, @PolisKE and the Kenya Red Cross continues.”
Masoud Mwinyi, assistant deputy inspector general of the Kenyan police, told local media that officers were searching for students who may have escaped the fire but have still not been found.
“We’re canvassing the area because because of that shock and fear and anxiety, a lot of people went out and it was night,” he said.
Dozens of parents gathered at the school Thursday morning, frantically searching for news about their children.
Wambui Nderitu he told the BBC His nephew survived the fire but broke his leg. “Some of the people upstairs had to jump out, so they got injured.”
