Kenyan police detectives and forensic experts stand next a building at Utumishi Girls Academy where a deadly fire took place in Gilgil, north of the capital Nairobi on May 28, 2026.
Kenyan police on Friday said eight students had been arrested over a suspected arson attack at a girls' school that killed 16 children and hospitalised 79 others.
The fire broke in the early hours of Thursday at Utumishi Girls Academy in Kenya's Nakuru County, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the capital, Nairobi.
The upper floor of the two-storey building, which had 12 cubicles housing 135 bunk beds, was badly damaged, according to police.
"Preliminary investigations have identified eight students as persons of interest in connection with the planning and execution of the suspected arson attack," the director of criminal investigations said in a statement.
