Why are Kenyan kids burning schools and killing their classmates?

A general view shows the coffins of victims of the Utumishi Girls' Academy Senior School as mourners pray during a memorial mass amid growing concern over a wave of school fires across Kenya at Gilgil Stadium in Gilgil, on June 12, 2026. [AFP]

Almost 50 fires have ripped through Kenyan schools this year, 16 schoolgirls have died, and more than 100 schools have temporarily closed. Everyone knows there is a crisis, but few have solutions.

To many, Kenya's strange and deadly spate of arson attacks is the result of an education system buckling under chronic funding shortfalls and corruption.