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Kenyan police said on Friday eight students had been arrested over a suspected arson attack at a girls’ school that killed 16 children and injured 79.
The education minister said a preliminary inquiry had found the school had breached safety regulations, its board had been dissolved, and disciplinary action was being taken against the school head.
The fire broke out early Thursday at Utumishi Girls Academy in Kenya’s Nakuru County, about 120 kilometres north of Nairobi.
Police said the bodies were discovered in the badly fire-damaged dormitory on the upper floor of the two-storey building, which had 12 cubicles housing 135 bunk beds, according to police.
The dormitory was built to accommodate 270 pupils. It was unclear how many were present at the time of the fire.
“Preliminary investigations have identified eight students as persons of interest in connection with the planning and execution of the suspected arson attack,” the director of criminal investigations said in a statement.
The students arrested are pupils at the school.
Investigators have interviewed students and teachers, and reviewed CCTV footage and forensic evidence to determine the cause of the fire, which has not been immediately disclosed.
The school is linked to the National Police Service, and most pupils are the children of officers.
Education Minister Julius Migos Ogamba issued a statement saying the school “did not adhere to the safety requirements”.
“In particular, there was congestion in the dormitory and one exit door was locked,” he said.
Distraught parents
Kenyan Journalist Brygettes Ngana shared gut-wrenching video on X showing one distraught father at the scene the morning after the blaze.
“You’re not telling us anything. I want to know where my daughter is,” he is heard telling a Red Cross worker at the scene.
“Let me check whether my daughter is among the dead.”
“Stop lecturing me, I don’t want stories.”
According to Ngana, parents at the scene were forced into an excruciating wait for information regarding the fatalities.
“This grieving parent paints the picture of how information is still being guarded with regard to the fatalities in the Utumishi Girls Inferno,” she said on the afternoon after the fire.
The bodies of the 16 dead were eventually moved to a mortuary pending identification, police said.
Distraught parents gathered at the school on Thursday, and by the evening, some were still uncertain about the fate of their children.
There have been many deadly school fires in Kenya, where boarding schools are common as a colonial legacy of missionaries and the British.
Children have been accused of deliberately starting school fires in Kenya in the past. One report found there were 63 arson cases at schools in 2018 alone.
In the case of the Utumishi fire, Ogama said: “Two teachers were informed of planned unrest by a section of Form Three learners (but) did not take appropriate action before the arson”.
He said they would be “subject to disciplinary proceedings”.
In addition, he said, “Investigations are ongoing to establish other aspects of negligence on the part of officers from the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission.
“Appropriate disciplinary and legal action will be taken against officers found to have been negligent in their duties.”
Pupils were accused after a 2001 dormitory fire in the southern county of Machakos killed 67.
A 2024 dormitory fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County killed 21 boys, prompting government promises of nationwide action, though it remains unclear whether the measures were implemented.
On Thursday, the education minister said the ministry had closed around 350 schools since 2024 for failing to comply with safety standards.
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