Kenya's Boarding Schools Trapped in a Cycle of Preventable Fires

A May 28 fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Nakuru County injured 79 of 202 students in a single dormitory—a 39 percent casualty rate from a predictable disaster. Kenya's boarding schools have burned repeatedly for decades. Aging infrastructure, missing fire safety equipment, and thin oversight create the conditions. The Ministry of Education has pledged reforms before, but enforcement remains sporadic. Each crisis resurfaces the same gap between mandate and reality on the ground.