Prosecutors in Kenya have prepared murder charges against a group of students accused of igniting a deadly dormitory fire last May that killed 16 girls at a secondary school, officials announced Tuesday.
The fire broke out on May 28 and swept through a dormitory at Utumishi Girls School in central Kenya, where 202 students were sleeping. When the blaze started, students were forced to escape through a single doorway after the school matron was unable to open an emergency exit.
Investigators later arrested nine suspects, alleging that they deliberately set a mattress on fire close to one of the exits. Those suspects are currently being held in custody during a 21-day investigation period, after which they will be formally brought before a court, according to Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
That same office raised alarm about what it described as a rising number of fire incidents at schools throughout the country, warning that anyone found responsible would face consequences.
By early June, the Kenya Red Cross reported that it had already responded to 37 separate school fire incidents since January.
Last month, Kenya’s Education Ministry suspended the principal of Utumishi Girls School, citing the administrator’s failure to follow fire safety rules. The ministry also revealed it had shut down more than 300 schools in the wake of a 2024 fire disaster that claimed the lives of 21 boys in central Kenya.
School fires remain a serious and ongoing concern in Kenya, where classrooms and dormitories are frequently overcrowded and firefighting equipment is rarely available on campus. Authorities often point to faulty electrical wiring as a contributing factor in many of these incidents.
The worst school fire in Kenya’s recent history happened in 2001, when 67 students lost their lives in a dormitory fire in Machakos County.
