Several female students feared dead in Kenya school dormitory fire

Several girls were feared dead in a school fire in Kenya's central region of Nakuru, local media said on Thursday, citing a senior police official.

Emergency rescue teams were searching the dormitory at Utumishi Girls Academy, where the fire started at about 1 a.m. local time, radio station Capital FM said, citing Samuel Ndanyi, the regional police commander.

Several local media reported that at least 10 girls had died, with Citizen TV saying 16 children had been killed and 74 hospitalised, but this was yet to be confirmed by police.

"First responders, ambulance crew and our support personnel are currently on the ground," a spokesperson for the Kenyan Red Cross told AFP, declining to give a toll.

Frantic parents were being held outside the school buildings by authorities, according to local media.

"It is a distressing and saddening situation," county police official Masoud Mwinyi told distraught parents outside the school, said another broadcaster, Citizen Television.

Containment efforts

Firefighters and police officers had fanned out to control the blaze and evacuate other students, Capital FM added. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Authorities were trying to account for all the students at Utumishi Girls School in the Gilgil area.

School fires are common in Kenyan boarding schools, with some caused by arson and others by electrical faults.

Kenya's deadliest recent school fire occurred in 2001 when 67 students died in a dormitory fire in Machakos County.

In 2024, a fire killed 21 students at a primary boarding school in nearby Nyeri County.