Scorch marks are visible on a dormitory at the Utumishi Girls' Academy Senior School in Gilgil, Kenya, on Thursday after a fire broke out overnight. ReutersScorch marks are visible on a dormitory at the Utumishi Girls' Academy Senior School in Gilgil, Kenya, on Thursday after a fire broke out overnight. ReutersDozens more injured in overnight blazeReutersMay 28, 2026HeadphonesBookmark​A fire tore through ⁠a dormitory at a girls' school ⁠in a town in ​Kenya's Rift Valley overnight, killing at least 16 ⁠pupils, the government said on Thursday.The blaze broke out just ⁠after midnight at the Utumishi Girls' Academy Senior School in Gilgil, ​in ⁠west-central Kenya, and burned ‌for more than two hours, Education Minister Julius Migos said.He said ​79 other pupils were injured, 71 of whom have already been discharged from hospital.He said an investigation had been launched into the cause of the fire. Footage on Kenyan television showed broken windows and smoke-stained walls, while family members gathered outside the school gates to seek news of missing loved ones.Masoud Mwinyi, a senior ​police commander, had earlier said 50 ⁠officers were combing areas around the school for pupils who may ​have ‌fled when the fire broke out. “Of that shock ⁠and fear and anxiety, many people went ⁠out and it was at night,” he said.Parents and pupils gather at the Utumishi Girls' Academy Senior School following an overnight fire. ReutersInfo“The fire started from an upper ​dome and ‌spread all over within that time,” Eunice Mureithi, whose daughter escaped the fire, told ⁠the NTV television station, referring to part of the school's structure.“It ⁠had barricaded a part of the dome to one side and to the other side the students were unable to come out, but a lot of them were able to escape.”Fires are common at Kenyan schools, with more than 100 recorded in 2024, according to the government. Many are set by pupils in protest against harsh discipline and poor conditions, researchers have found.A fire in 2024 at a primary ‌boarding school in nearby ⁠Nyeri County killed 21 pupils. Its cause ​was never conclusively established.In the worst school ​fire of recent times, 67 schoolboys were killed in 2001 at Kyanguli Secondary School outside Nairobi, an incident the authorities attributed to arson. Updated: May 28, 2026, 10:28 AMMost popular today12345678910