The fire broke out at around 1:00 a.m. in the Meline Waithera Block, a dormitory housing 220 students drawn from Grade 10, Form 3, and Form 4. It burned for more than two hours, leaving 79 others injured and families desperate for answers outside the school gates.
Survivors recount being jolted awake by smoke and flames already spreading rapidly through the dormitory. In the chaos that followed, students screamed for help, broke windows, and leaped from the building to escape.
Several sustained broken legs and serious injuries in the process.
According to survivor accounts, the fire appeared to have been started deliberately from within the dormitory, with three Form 3 students emerging as key suspects in the incident.
The suspected students are reported to have started the fire in one section of the dormitory before it spread rapidly, trapping those in adjacent sections.
The motive, as is common in Kenya's troubling history of school arson, is believed to be linked to student grievances.
Kenya recorded more than 63 arson cases in public secondary schools in 2018 alone.
A 2017 report by the National Crime Research Centre linked such incidents to exam stress, harsh discipline, and poor school conditions.
A fire in 2024 killed 21 boys at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County under similar circumstances.
Investigations are ongoing, with detectives and homicide officials already on the ground at the school.
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