The Kyanguli boarding school is government run and has up to 600 students. All of those who died were in a poorly maintained and overcrowded barracks style dormitory. The dormitory housed over 130 students, but was designed to hold half that number. One of the two doors to the dormitory was locked on the outside and all of its ten windows were barred. There were no fire extinguishers.
Reports indicate that it is common practice to lock students inside dormitories at night.
For many parents in Kenya sending their children to government-run boarding schools is seen as a way of providing a decent education and a means of escape from the grinding poverty associated with day to day living in Kenya. The father of a 15 year-old boy injured in the Kyanguli fire explained that he sent his son there to improve his education and to attempt to keep him out of trouble. Kenya has about 3,500 government boarding schools, although up to 987 of them are run by the Roman Catholic church. Most of the schools are starved of resources and have rudimentary facilities. The students have to study in overcrowded classrooms and live in overcrowded dormitories in a country where water and electricity are rationed.