Eight students arrested over 'suspected arson attack' at Kenyan girls' school

A parent is assisted as she is overcome by emotions while waiting with others for news of their loved ones at the Utumishi Girls Academy following the deadly fire in Gilgil, north of the capital Nairobi on May 28, 2026. [AFP]

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.

Investigators have conducted intensive interviews with students and teaching staff, and reviewed CCTV footage and other forensic evidence to determine the cause of the fire -- which remains unknown.

The school is linked to the National Police Service and most pupils are the children of officers.

All 16 bodies have been recovered and moved to the mortuary pending identification, police said.

Distraught parents gathered at the school when news of the fire broke on Thursday, and by the evening some were still uncertain about the fate of their children.

There have been many devastating school fires in Kenya, where boarding schools are common as a colonial legacy of missionaries and the British.

Children have been accused of deliberately starting school fires in Kenya in the past. One report found there were 63 arson cases at schools in 2018 alone.

Pupils were accused after a 2001 dormitory fire in the southern county of Machakos killed 67.

A 2024 dormitory fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri county killed 21 boys, prompting government promises of nationwide school safety audits and prosecutions, though it remains unclear whether the measures were implemented.

On Thursday, the education minister said the ministry had closed around 350 schools since 2024 for failing to comply with safety standards.