Utumishi Girls' Senior Secondary, which lost 16 students to a fire tragedy on Thursday, is a public boarding school located in Gilgil, Nakuru County.
The institution, managed by the National Police Service, chiefly admits learners whose parents are members of the security sector. However, it also admits civilians.
The school is located within the former African Police Training Centre (APTC) in Gilgil, and was founded by Edward Mbugua ,a former patron of Utumishi Boys Academy.
Established in 2019, it is in the Cluster 1 category of public senior secondary schools under the Competency Based Education (CBE) system.
Formerly, the institution was a national boarding school known as Utumishi Girls' Academy. It currently has learners in Grades 10, Form 3 and Form 4.
Utumishi Girls' Academy, linked to the management by the National Police Service, made admission of its pioneer cohort in 2020 and began admitting Form 1 students in 2022.
Students at the institution first sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in 2023. In the 2024 national exam, the school got a mean score of 7.88. Four students had a mean grade of A-, 11 with a B+ and 25 with a B plain.
In the 2025 KCSE, their mean score improved to 8.57, with a top performing student having a mean grade of A in the exams. Six students had a mean grade of A-, while 22 others scored B+ and 54 a B plain.
