Prosecutors in Kenya on Wednesday charged eight schoolgirls with murdering 16 of their classmates by setting a fire at the Utumishi Girls Academy on May 28. The victims, perpetrators, and most of the 79 people injured by the fire were between 15 and 18 years old.
The Utumishi academy is an all-girls boarding school in the town of Gilgil, some 69 miles north of the capital of Nairobi. The fire started on an upper floor at just after midnight and burned for over two hours. Eyewitnesses said many of the students were trapped by debris and unable to escape the blaze.
CNN noted at the time that school fires are all too common in Kenya and are frequently started by “students protesting harsh discipline and school conditions.”
Sixteen girls ended up dying in the Utumishi fire and, at their mass funeral on June 13, one of the presiding officials revealed he himself was the survivor of Kenya’s deadliest school fire in 2001 – a disaster that claimed 67 victims. The Kenya Red Cross said it has responded to 37 school fires so far in 2026.
There was little mystery as to the origins of the Utumishi fire. The day after the deadly blaze, 30 students were recalled to the school for questioning. Eight of them were identified as “persons of interest in connection with the planning and execution” of the arson attack and taken into custody by police.
A preliminary investigation also found numerous safety breaches at the school contributed to the high death toll, including overcrowded dorms and an exit door that was inexplicably locked, “contrary to the prescribed safety requirements.” The upper floor of the dormitory building contained 135 bunk beds and housed 202 students but offered only a single doorway for escape when the emergency exit did not open.
On Wednesday, five weeks after the fire, the eight suspects were each charged with 16 counts of murder. Prosecutors said they would be held without bail “for their own protection and welfare, given the sensitivity and public interest surrounding the matter.”
The accused underwent extensive psychiatric evaluations to ensure they could stand trial and have already pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.
Few details about the suspects, or the arson attack, have been released to the public. According to one early report, the arsonists started the fire by piling mattresses near an exit from the dormitory area and setting them ablaze. On the day after the fire, Kenyan Education Minister Julius Ogamba said investigators believed “two teachers had been informed of the students’ alleged plans, but failed to stop them.”
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