{"id":1513289,"date":"2026-05-28T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?guid=d030044b1cd5fee42eb0904b47fcda86"},"modified":"2026-06-08T06:13:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T11:13:31","slug":"fire-at-girls-school-in-kenya-kills-at-least-16-students-minister-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1513289","title":{"rendered":"Fire at girls school in Kenya kills at least 16 students, minister says"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/05\/06faa0d4a54381813e2d24ebd77d8361.jpg\" alt\/><figcaption>Parents and guardians stand at Utumishi Girls Academy following the deadly fire in Nakuru, north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi on May 28, 2026. (Simon Maina\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>(LONDON) -- At least 16 students died in an overnight fire at a boarding school for girls in central Kenya, a government minister said Thursday.<\/p><p>Education Minister Julius Ogamba said in a statement posted to X that a \"regrettable fire tragedy befell Utumishi Girls Academy in Nakuru County. Most unfortunately, 16 learners lost their lives while several others suffered injuries in the incident.\"<\/p><p>The Kenya Police Service said in a statement posted to Facebook that \"several other students were injured and are receiving treatment.\"<\/p><p>The blaze broke out in a dormitory at the Utumishi Girls Senior School in the town of Gilgil in Kenya's Nakuru County, police said, around 74 miles from the capital Nairobi.<\/p><p>Search and rescue operations are ongoing, police said. \"We are working to account for all students and support affected families during this difficult time,\" the service said in its statement.<\/p><p>The fire was reported early Thursday at around 3:30 a.m. local time, according to the Kenya Red Cross, which said its team were supporting the ongoing multi-agency response. \"Several students have been evacuated and are receiving treatment in various hospitals,\" Kenya Red Cross said.<\/p><p>Ogamba expressed \"our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and relatives of the learners who lost their lives in this sorrowful incident. We wish a quick recovery to those who were injured. We pray that God grants everyone strength and fortitude during this difficult and painful period.\"<\/p><p>\"Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing and updates will be provided in due course,\" the minister added.<\/p><p><em>ABC News' Charlotte Gardiner contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p><p>Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parents and guardians stand at Utumishi Girls Academy following the deadly fire in Nakuru, north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi on May 28, 2026. (Simon Maina\/AFP via Getty Images)(LONDON) &#8212; At least 16 students died in an overnight fire at a boarding s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":1510794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/05\/06faa0d4a54381813e2d24ebd77d8361.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1502,1504],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1513289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-heads","category-abc-world-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 08:14:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/05\/06faa0d4a54381813e2d24ebd77d8361.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1513289"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1513520,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513289\/revisions\/1513520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1510794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1513289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1513289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1513289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}