At least 15 students were killed after a fire broke out in a dormitory at a girls’ school in Kenya’s central Nakuru region, local media reported on Thursday, citing police.
The blaze erupted at around 1 a.m. at Utumishi Girls Academy, according to Capital FM, which cited regional police commander Samuel Ndanyi. Emergency teams were still searching the dormitory after the fire was brought under control.
“It is a distressing and saddening situation,” county police official Masoud Mwinyi told anxious parents gathered outside the school, according to Citizen Television.
Firefighters and police officers were deployed to contain the blaze and evacuate students from the school, Capital FM reported. Authorities have not yet established the cause of the fire.
The tragedy comes less than two years after a fire killed 21 students at a primary boarding school in nearby Nyeri County in 2024.