School Safety Rules Under Scrutiny After Utumishi Academy Fire Kills 16 Students

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba and Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the government will review how schools comply with the school safety manual as investigations continue into the deadly dormitory fire at Utumishi Academy Senior School in Gilgil, Nakuru County.

Speaking during a briefing on Thursday, Ogamba said officials should not guess what caused the fire because investigators have not yet identified the inferno’s origin.

“As we have said, we already do not know the cause of this particular fire, and it would be speculative… we wait for the outcome of the investigations,” Ogamba said.

Ogamba added that Kenya’s school safety manual sets requirements that schools must follow, and he said investigators will also check whether Utumishi Academy followed those guidelines.

“From a policy perspective, we have a safety school manual that all the schools adhere to, and I would urge that we wait to see, after the investigations, whether that safety manual was adhered to in this particular school,” he said.

Ogamba said the government has taken action against schools that fail to meet required safety standards, pointing to an earlier period when authorities shut down hundreds of institutions after safety audits.

“Initially, we did close to 350 schools that were not meeting the specifications of that particular manual,” he said, adding that audits will continue and the safety manual will keep getting updated.

The comments came as Ogamba and Murkomen provided an update on the tragedy and confirmed that 16 students died in the fire. Ogamba said the fire started at around 12:45am in a dormitory on the second floor, and the blaze destroyed the entire dormitory while injuring several learners.

He said the school had 815 girls in total, but 808 attended at the time, while seven stayed away for different reasons.

Ogamba added that 79 learners suffered injuries and received hospital treatment. He said 71 have already been discharged, seven remain admitted, and one learner a parent picked up.

Murkomen urged Kenyans to avoid speculation while investigations continue, and he thanked the multi-agency response teams, including the county security team and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), for helping put out the fire by about 3am.

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