Forensic teams comb the ruins of a dormitory as investigators pursue suspected arson and a nation mourns sixteen daughters.
By MKT Reporter
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has arrested eight students as persons of interest following a fire at Utumishi Girls Senior Secondary School in Gilgil, Nakuru County, that killed 16 students when flames tore through a dormitory in the early hours of Thursday, 28 May 2026.
The DCI confirmed the arrests in a statement on Friday, disclosing that a dedicated investigation team led by the Director of Homicide had taken over the case following the conclusion of rescue and emergency response operations. “Preliminary investigations have identified eight students as persons of interest in connection with the planning and execution of the suspected arson attack,” the statement read. “The eight girls have since been arrested and are currently in police custody.” The word arson, contained plainly in an official government statement, transforms what might have been an accidental tragedy into something far more disturbing — a crime, allegedly planned and executed inside the walls of a school by the very students who lived there.
The fire broke out at the Meline Waithera Dormitory, a two-storey building whose upper floor sustained extensive damage while the ground floor remained largely intact. The upper floor housed 12 cubicles accommodating 135 double-decker beds — a detail that makes the loss of 16 lives all the more harrowing. Every one of those beds belonged to a daughter, a sister, a friend. Investigators recovered all 16 bodies from the scene, and they have since been transferred to Naivasha Sub-County Referral Hospital Mortuary pending post-mortem examinations and formal identification. An unknown number of students remain under medical care.
The emergency response drew in an unusually wide coalition of agencies — the National Police Service, Kenya Defence Forces, National Youth Service, Kenya Red Cross Society, Nakuru County government, Kenya Forest Service, the National Disaster Management Unit, and the Ministry of Education. That such a mobilisation was necessary speaks to the scale of a disaster that overwhelmed ordinary emergency capacity and demanded a national response to what had begun as a local catastrophe.
The forensic response has been equally thorough. A multi-agency investigation team comprising crime scene investigators, forensic imaging and acoustics specialists from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau, and DNA experts has processed the dormitory in detail. Detectives are analysing burn patterns, reviewing electrical installations, and determining whether accelerants were used to start or spread the fire. CCTV footage recovered from the school is under active examination, and statements have been recorded from students, teachers, and other witnesses present on the night. “Detectives continue to record statements and analyse all available evidence to reconstruct the sequence of events, establish the full circumstances of the incident, and determine the motive,” the DCI said.
The DCI appealed to parents, guardians, and the public to remain calm and allow investigations to proceed without interference — a request that acknowledges the raw grief and anger that has settled over a country struggling to comprehend how a school dormitory became a crime scene.
Kenya has buried too many children in school fires. This time, the investigators believe someone is responsible. The country is watching — and waiting for justice.
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