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Utumishi Girls, Hillside Endarasha and other Kenyan school fires that killed dozens of students
28th May, 2026 02:19 PM
The deadly fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil on Thursday, May 28, 2026, has once again shocked the nation and raised painful questions about safety in Kenyan boarding schools. The midnight fire killed at least 16 students and injured dozens more after flames spread through a dormitory while the girls were asleep.
Sadly, this tragedy is not new in Kenya. For more than 25 years, schools across the country have experienced deadly dormitory fires that continue to claim the lives of students. From Kyanguli Secondary School in 2001, to Moi Girls High School in 2017, and Hillside Endarasha Academy in 2024, the pattern has remained the same. Fires break out at night, students struggle to escape, and the country is left mourning young lives lost too soon.
After every disaster, leaders promise investigations and stronger safety measures. However, many schools still face serious problems such as overcrowded dormitories, poor emergency exits, and weak fire preparedness. The tragedy at Utumishi Girls now joins a long and painful history of school fires that Kenya has failed to stop.
2001: The Kyanguli Secondary School disaster
The benchmark for school fire tragedies in Kenya occurred on March 26, 2001, at Kyanguli Secondary School in Machakos County. A dormitory housing 130 students was deliberately set on fire using petrol.
The disaster turned catastrophic because one of the two exit doors was locked from the outside, and the windows were heavily reinforced with iron bars. Sixty-seven students perished in the blaze, making it the deadliest school fire in Kenyan history.
In the aftermath, a massive public outcry forced the government to rethink boarding school security, leading to the creation of the first stringent safety guidelines aimed at removing window grills and ensuring open emergency exits.
2017: The Moi Girls High School tragedy
Sixteen years after Kyanguli, the vulnerability of urban boarding schools was exposed on September 2, 2017, at Moi Girls High School in Nairobi.
This incident exposed a massive gap in institutional emergency preparedness, as school staff struggled with evacuation procedures, and overcrowding in the dormitories slowed down rescue efforts. The student responsible was later convicted of manslaughter, highlighting a growing subculture of arson used as a form of student protest.
2024: The Hillside Endarasha Academy nightmare
The victims were young primary school boys, aged between 9 and 13, who were trapped as they slept.
Twenty-one boys died from severe burns and smoke inhalation. Subsequent state investigations revealed that the dormitory was severely overcrowded, housing 156 boys, well beyond its legal capacity.
Furthermore, compromised security infrastructure, including tampered CCTV networks, severely hampered the subsequent forensic investigation, proving that safety compliance was treated as an afterthought.
2026: The Utumishi Girls Academy calamity
The May 28, 2026, disaster at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil proves that the lessons of Hillside Endarasha were entirely ignored.
The fire broke out between 12:45 am and 1:00 am on the first floor of the multi-storey Meline Waithera Block, which housed 220 students. Sixteen girls died, and 79 others were injured.
Author
Steve Ireri
Steve is a senior writer with over four years of experience in digital journalism. His focus is on the showbiz and human interest stories. Emails: [email protected] , [email protected]
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