At least seven students were injured and hospitalized early Tuesday December 10 morning after a fire broke out in Hall 5 at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).
The incident occurred at around 3 am, forcing students to flee for safety, police and the university administration said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Students lost their valuables in the incident that took long to contain.
Firefighters and disaster response teams contained the blaze hours later preventing it from spreading to nearby structures.
Injured students received prompt medical attention, with the university management overseeing their transfer to hospitals.
While claims surfaced suggesting arson targeting 5,000 students, these allegations remain unverified.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has since launched an investigation into the fire incident, though details about the extent of damage remain unclear at this time.
Videos showed the upper floors of the hostel burning.
Further reports indicated that this was the second consecutive time a fire had affected an accommodation facility, with no significant intervention taken to address the issue.
Police want to establish if it was the work of arsonists in the incident.
Those injured were stable in hospital, police said adding the investigation team will include officials from the county government of Kiambu.
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