NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Nine students accused of planning and executing an arson attack that killed 16 girls at a school in central Kenya appeared in court Tuesday.
Investigators asked for more time to probe the deadly fire. The High Court in the town of Naivasha, 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of the capital, Nairobi, said it will issue a ruling on Wednesday on whether the girls could be detained for a month pending investigations.
The fire on May 28 ripped through the Utumishi Girls School dormitory that houses 202 students. The school matron failed to open an emergency door, forcing all students to scamper through a single door, according to investigators.
The accused girls have been in police custody for five days, during which interrogations revealed the fire was started by lighting a mattress at the dormitory’s exit using a matchstick and paraffin. No motive has been revealed so far.
The results of DNA tests to determine the identities of some of the bodies that were charred beyond recognition are expected on Wednesday.
CCTV footage obtained from the razed dormitory showed six students starting the fire moments before students woke up, rushing to escape the blaze that left 79 wounded.
Since the incident, five more school fire incidents have occurred in different parts of the country, and the Kenya Red Cross has responded to 37 school fires since the beginning of the year. No other school fire has resulted in casualties.
School fires are common in Kenya, where classrooms and dormitories are often crowded and firefighting equipment is rarely within reach. The deadliest occurred in 2001, when 67 students died in Machakos County, and the most recent fatal incident was in 2024, when 21 children died in Nyeri County.
There have also been cases of students burning down schools because of disciplinary issues.
Nine students from Utumishi Girls Academy appear at Naivasha Law Courts in Nakuru, Kenya, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Court proceedings take place as nine students from Utumishi Girls Academy, not seen, appear at Naivasha Law Courts in Nakuru, Kenya, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Students from Utumishi Girls Academy appear at Naivasha Law Courts in Nakuru, Kenya, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is set to return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday after the Trump administration signaled it was pausing contentious plans to move forward with a nearly $1.8 billion fund that could compensate allies of President Donald Trump who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted.
The hearing before the House Appropriations Committee was scheduled for discussion of the Justice Department's budget, but lawmakers will almost certainly focus their questioning on the creation of a fund that has provoked outrage over the mere possibility that violent pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be eligible for payouts.
The Republican president is now reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund established to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, according to a person familiar with the matter, in the face of Republican backlash and legal setbacks. The person insisted on anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking on Monday. The Justice Department also said Monday it would comply with a Virginia court temporarily blocking the administration's “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” effectively agreeing to pause the plan for at least two weeks.
Another judge in Florida raised the prospect of reopening the IRS lawsuit because of “grievous allegations” of improper dealing made against the administration by settlement critics.
The Trump administration has defended the fund as an appropriate measure to make up for what officials insist was a weaponized Justice Department during President Joe Biden's Democratic administration, a claim the Biden administration strongly denied. Though some Trump supporters, including participants in the Capitol riot, have celebrated the announcement, the reaction among Republicans in Congress has been decidedly more hostile, forcing Blanche to try to assuage a GOP constituency that generally operates in close alignment with the administration.
The furor has especially complicated matters in the Senate, where Republicans defiantly left town 10 days ago without passing legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies. Republicans who returned to Washington on Monday said they won’t have the votes to pass the Homeland Security spending bill until the White House works with them to place parameters on the fund. Many have pushed the administration to impose limits or scrap the idea altogether.
At a Senate budget hearing last month, Blanche refused to rule out the possibility that those who carried out violence on Jan. 6 could be eligible for payouts and has repeatedly said in interviews that anyone who feels persecuted by the criminal justice system is free to apply. Payouts will be decided by a five-member commission appointed by Blanche.
But he has apparently struck a more conciliatory tone in private when confronted by Republican anger.
Blanche encountered a groundswell of opposition last month at a tense private meeting with GOP senators, with more than half raising concerns, including by shouting at the Justice Department's top official, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said in a recent episode of his podcast.
“There were fireworks at an epic level — and I've got to say, it's one of the roughest meetings I've seen in my entire time in the Senate," Cruz said.
Behind closed doors, Blanche was “adamant” that no one who assaulted police at the Capitol would receive compensation, according to Cruz.
“He said not just ‘no,’ but ‘hell no,’” the senator recalled.
FILE - Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Gabriela Passos, File)
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies during a Senate Committee on Appropriations subcommittee hearing to address the Trump administration's budget request for the Justice Department, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche arrives for a closed-door meeting with Republican senators who are expected to abandon a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and President Donald Trump's ballroom after it has failed to win enough party support, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks to a reporter outside the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
FILE - Acting U.S. attorney general Todd Blanche speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department, May 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
