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Utumishi Girls’ Academy: Location, origin, history, academic performance
28th May, 2026 12:55 PM
Nestled within the rolling landscape of Gilgil Town in Nakuru County, Utumishi Girls’ Academy is a national-level public boarding school for girls operating under the stewardship of the National Police Service (NPS) and the Kenya National Police DT Sacco.
The school shares a campus with its sibling institution, Utumishi Boys’ Academy, within Gilgil Sub-County in Kenya’s Rift Valley region.
Its motto, Greatness in Humility, captures the ethos of discipline and purpose at the academy.
Under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), the institution now operates as a senior school hosting learners in Grades 10, 11, and 12.
Students specialise in one of two main pathways: STEM (covering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) or social sciences, which encompasses humanities and business studies.
School born of service
Utumishi Girls’ Academy traces its institutional roots to the broader Utumishi family, which dates to 1990 under the leadership of the late Philip Kilonzo, the then Commissioner of Police.
The idea of starting a school for police officers’ children had been conceived as far back as the early 1960s, but it was not until 1991 that Kilonzo began implementing the vision.
On May 30, 1991, the first steering committee was formed, chaired by former Senior Deputy Commissioner of Police Elijah Sumbeiywo, and the boys’ institution admitted its first students on January 26, 1993.
The girls’ school came much later, in 2020, founded by former Deputy Inspector General of the Kenya Police Service, Edward Njoroge Mbugua.
In July 2021, Mbugua presided over a fundraising drive at the school for the construction of a girls’ dormitory, describing it as “a modern centre of excellence” and at the time noting it was “the only school that cooks using the gas system” in Nakuru County and the greater Rift Valley.
The Utumishi institution (encompassing the Boys’ Academy, Girls’ Academy, and Utumishi Comprehensive School) has grown tremendously since its founding.
Academic performance
Utumishi Girls’ Academy entered 2026 on its strongest academic footing yet. In the 2025 KCSE examinations, the school recorded a mean score of 8.57, producing one straight A, six A minuses, 22 B pluses, 54 B plains, 42 B minuses, 22 C pluses, three C plains, and two C minuses – with a C minus as the lowest grade attained.
This represents a significant improvement from the school’s 2024 mean score of 7.88 – a result that marked only its second cohort to sit the KCSE examinations.
Notably, Utumishi Girls’ Academy achieved a university transition rate of 96.7 per cent in 2025.
