We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, loved ones, students, teachers, and the entire community affected by the tragic fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County, which has so far claimed 16 students' lives and left dozens injured.
Our hearts are heavy as civil society in the education sector. No parent should send a child to school only to receive news of death, injury, or tragedy.
Schools are meant to be places of safety, learning, hope, and growth, not places where children lose their lives in preventable disasters.
This tragedy is especially painful because it comes as the country is still mourning and demanding justice for the victims of the Hillside Endarasha Academy tragedy in Nyeri, where 21 innocent boys lost their lives in 2024.
Before that, Kenya witnessed similar deadly school fires and disasters at St. Kizito in 1991, Bombolulu Girls in 1998, Nyeri High School in 1999, Kyanguli Secondary School in 2001, Asumbi Girls in 2012, and Moi Girls, Nairobi, in 2017.
Investigations repeatedly show carelessness, weak enforcement of safety rules, poor emergency readiness, and ongoing problems within institutions responsible for protecting students.
The latest tragedy at Utumishi Girls Academy, Gilgil, raises serious and urgent questions about how safe Kenyan boarding schools really are and whether the Ministry of Education is truly enforcing the rules.
Kenya has clear school safety rules through the Ministry of Education’s Safety Standards Manual for Schools. These rules require enough space in dormitories, emergency exits, doors that open outward, fire extinguishers, regular fire drills, disaster readiness plans, secure school grounds, and regular checks to keep students safe.
However, despite these clear standards, they are not followed. As a result, lives continue to be lost in foreseeable and preventable tragedies.
Kenyan parents trust schools and government bodies with their children’s lives. They expect that before a boarding school opens, proper safety checks, emergency plans, fire response systems, and dormitory safety rules are fully in place and confirmed. Sadly, repeated tragedies reveal serious problems with enforcement, accountability, and readiness.
Sending a child to school should never be a life-or-death choice. Yet more Kenyan parents are afraid because school tragedies are becoming a worrying pattern instead of rare events.
We therefore demand:
- The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Migos Ogamba, must resign immediately for failing to keep our students safe in schools. Ogamba’s statement that 350 schools have been closed since 2024, after the Endarasha Hillside fire, is too little, too late and ignores the recent 2026-2027 budget report, which shows the quality assurance department is badly underfunded and lacks resources.
- Full transparency and accountability regarding the circumstances that led to the fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil.
- Immediate and independent investigations into whether all school safety regulations and Ministry of Education standards were being complied with.
- Accountability from all institutions and officials responsible for inspecting, licensing, monitoring, and enforcing safety standards in schools.
- The urgent need to strengthen, grow, and support the Ministry of Education’s Quality Assurance and Standards teams so they can carry out regular, independent, and surprise safety checks in schools across the country.
- Stop the practice of inspections that only happen after a tragedy. Safety checks must be active, ongoing, and open.
- A nationwide review of all boarding schools to check fire safety gear, emergency exits, crowded dormitories, evacuation plans, electrical safety, and disaster response systems.
- Immediate enforcement and closure notices against institutions found violating mandatory safety standards until corrective measures are implemented.
