Mourning in Kenya after the serious fire that occurred this morning at the Utumishi Women’s Academy, in Gilgil (in the center-west of the country), where at least 16 high school students have lost their lives and another 79 have been injured. Seven of them, as confirmed by the Kenyan Minister of Education -Julius Ogamba-, remain hospitalized with injuries of varying degrees.
It has been a national tragedy, says President William Ruto, who has expressed his condolences to the families: “There are no words that can ease the pain of losing young lives full of promises, hope and dreams to fulfill,” the president wrote on the social network
Kenya’s Interior Minister, Kipchimba Murkomen, has also traveled there, conveying his condolences to the relatives of the deceased young women, and the governor of Nakuru County, Susan Kihika, has called for calm while the police analyze the investigations. The authorities are investigating the causes of the fire that broke out at the Utumishi Girls’ Academy.
About 220 secondary school students were sleeping in the building (located about 120 kilometers from the capital) when the flames started. And several fire crews, the Kenya Defense Forces and the Red Cross, among others, have been deployed there and are offering psychological support to the affected families.
Prevention and security measures in the country’s schools are in doubt
This tragedy unfortunately reminds us of others, also in Kenya, such as the fire in a boys’ boarding school in Kieni in 2024 that claimed the lives of 21 minors, or another in 2021 recorded in a secondary school in Kyanguli that left the terrible number of 67 young people dead.
