Survivors recount panic as Kenya school fire kills 16 girls
Red Cross volunteers and homicide detectives remove the bodies of students killed in a dormitory fire at Utumishi Girls’ Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County, on May 28, 2026.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group
Survivors of a fire that killed at least 16 students at Utumishi Girls’ Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County, Kenya, have said dormitory doors were locked from inside as panic spread through the school overnight.
The blaze broke out shortly after midnight at the girls’ secondary school in Kenya’s Rift Valley and burned for more than two hours, according to Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba.
