June 18, 2026
Emergency responders carry a mourner past the coffins of victims of the Utumishi Girls’ Academy Senior School fire during a memorial mass amid growing concern over a wave of school fires across Kenya at Gilgil Stadium in Gilgil, on June 12, 2026. The blaze at Utumishi Girls Academy last month left 16 schoolgirls dead and 132 injured, according to the Kenya Red Cross, one of 47 fires that have broken out across the country this year.The spate of school fires has provoked a national conversation, and raised urgent political questions.But at Gilgil Stadium, in Nakuru County about 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Nairobi, spiritual leaders steered the conversation away from political questions. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)
Almost 50 fires have ripped through Kenyan schools this year, 16 schoolgirls have died, and more than 100 schools have temporarily closed. Everyone knows there is a crisis, but few have solutions.
To many, Kenya’s strange and deadly spate of arson attacks is the result of an education system buckling under chronic funding shortfalls and corruption.
Problems are exacerbated by Kenyans’ preference for boarding schools — a legacy of the British colonial system — where children spend months away from parents in institutions often associated with overcrowding, underfunding and abuse.
