Nairobi, June 2 -- The recent fire tragedy at Utumishi Secondary School in Gilgil, which claimed the lives of 16 learners and left several others seriously injured, has once again reopened a painful national conversation. It forces us to pose a difficult question: should Kenya continue maintaining boarding schools in their current form, or is it time to abolish or fundamentally re-evaluate their usefulness?

Boarding schools were shaped in the pre-independence era and later expanded as instruments of access to education, national integration, and academic efficiency.

Over time, they evolved beyond academic institutions into structured environments for discipline, identity formation, and social mobility. For many learners, they provided s...