India, May 30 -- Kenyan police arrested eight female students on suspicion of arson, authorities said Friday, after a fire destroyed a dormitory at a boarding school, killing 16 children and injuring dozens of others. The motive remains under investigation.

The girls were arrested for planning and carrying out a suspected arson attack at Utumishi Girls School in central Kenya, according to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, or DCI, a department of the national police. In addition to the deaths, the blaze on Thursday morning left 79 others injured. Police spent the whole day Thursday questioning 30 students at the school and asked their parents to head home without the girls and come back on Friday morning.

"Investigators have c...