Sixteen students have been confirmed dead following a dormitory fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County, as police said dozens of other learners were admitted to hospital with injuries. Citizen Digital reports
Police said 74 students were hospitalised after the incident, which was reported in the early hours of Thursday.
In an incident report filed at Gilgil Police Station, police said the school principal, Joycelene Muraguri, reported the fire at about 4.30am.
Officers led by the Sub-County Police Commander (SCPC), accompanied by detectives, rushed to the school — about seven kilometres north of the station — and found a dormitory block already engulfed in flames.
The affected dormitory, identified as Meline Waithera Block, was housing 220 students, police said, adding that the learners were drawn from Grade 10, Form 3 and Form 4.
A multi-agency response was mounted to contain the blaze, with police saying fire brigades from Naivasha joined the operation alongside the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) and water bowsers from 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, even as the extent of damage to property was yet to be established.
Those injured were taken to Gilgil Sub-County Hospital and St Mark’s Hospital with what police described as varying degrees of injuries.
The scene was photographed and processed by crime scene investigators, police said, as detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Gilgil took over investigations.
The cause of the fire had not been established by Thursday morning.
