Kenyan authorities have arrested eight students on suspicion of arson over a fire at a girls’ boarding school that killed 16 students, ‌police said on Friday. The fire at the Utumishi Girls’ Academy Senior School in Gilgil in west-central Kenya broke out in the early hours of Thursday and also injured 79 students. Fires are common at Kenyan schools, with many set by students protesting harsh discipline and poor conditions, researchers ⁠have found.

A fire tore through a dormitory at a girls' secondary school in a town in Kenya's Rift Valley overnight, killing 16 students, the ​government said on Thursday. The ‌fire broke out just after midnight at the Utumishi Girls' Academy Senior ⁠School in Gilgil in west-central Kenya and burned for more than two hours, Education Minister Julius Migos told reporters.