Sixteen students died and 74 others were injured after a fire gutted a dormitory at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County.
Sixteen students have been confirmed dead following a dormitory fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County, while dozens of others were injured and admitted to hospital, police said.
According to police, 74 students were hospitalised after the fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday morning.
In an incident report filed at Gilgil Police Station, the school principal, Joycelene Muraguri, reported the fire at around 4:30am.
Police officers led by the Sub-County Police Commander (SCPC), alongside detectives, responded to the scene at the school located about seven kilometres north of the police station and found one of the dormitories engulfed in flames.
The affected dormitory, identified as the Meline Waithera Block, was housing 220 students from Grade 10, Form Three and Form Four classes.
A multi-agency emergency response was launched to contain the blaze, with fire engines from Naivasha joining teams from the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), the Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU), the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), and the National Youth Service (NYS).
Police said the joint teams managed to contain the fire, although the extent of property damage had not been established by Thursday morning.
Students injured in the incident were rushed to Gilgil Sub-County Hospital and St Mark’s Hospital for treatment.
The scene was later processed by crime scene investigators as detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Gilgil launched investigations into the cause of the fire.
Authorities said the cause of the blaze had not yet been established.
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