Seven Kisumu Girls students were on Monday charged with malicious damage to property and causing disturbance. Dressed in their full uniform, the students appeared before a Kisumu court dressed in their full school uniforms where they were accused of destroying school property worth over Sh 2 million including their principal’s car.
The seven denied the charges and were freed on Sh 30,000 cash bail awaiting mentioning of the case on August 7.
Early this month, the students went on rampage citing lack of religious freedom and strict policy on interacting with students from other schools. Angry students smashed windows, ripped school books and vandalized fire extinguishers accusing their principal Margaret Mechumo of high-handedness and curtailing their freedom. The fracas led to the school being closed immediately.
A section of the students who spoke to a local daily also said they were not happy with ‘poor diet’ they were being offered.
At least 4,210 students in Nyanza are out of school following rising unrest in secondary schools. A report by security agencies paints a grim picture on the state of learning, with just three months to the national examinations.
Regional Police Commander Leonard Katana yesterday confirmed that 26 schools were closed between July 1 and 11, adding that 47 students had been arrested.
“We are yet to take all of them to court because some are still being interrogated. But we can confirm that we are working to have all criminal cases punished.” But barely 12 hours after the police boss released his report, three more schools were reported to have been torched.
Katana said police foiled a plan by students to torch a dormitory within Seme in Kisumu and confiscated two litres of petrol, adding that they had intensified patrols in the area and were following promising leads on the individuals behind the incidents.
On Monday, Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed and Kenya National Examination Council Chairman George Magoha visited the region on a fact-finding mission. Prof Magoha warned students that the commission would not postpone the exams, with Mohamed, saying the Government would treat the incidents as purely criminal cases.
And last week, Katana called on stakeholders in the education sector to join hands to help curb the contagion effect where students were mimicking their striking colleagues. “These students are in a critical stage of development and if not well taken care of, they may slip into such unlawful actions,” he said.
Katana also banned petrol station from selling fuel in containers, saying students were buying fuel to commit arson.
Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said even though fewer schools had reported cases of unrest compared to last year, the government is concerned about the development.
“We have done our investigations which indicate that the cases are due to panic over exams that are set to start in coming months. Most of the students in affected schools seem unprepared due to the tight examination regulations in place.
“No amount of threats from students will make us go back to where we were when cheating was normal,” said Dr Kipsang when he visited Dagoreti High School in Nairobi which has also been affected by student unrest.
Contrary to what the Education ministry says, fear of examinations does not seem to be the top cause of student unrest in schools.
After interviews with students from various schools across the country that have been closed due to riots, the Sunday Nation has found that much of the unrest stems from a change of rules partly due to massive transfers of school heads who were posted to various institutions in the past couple of months.
A case in point is Maranda High School, where a Form Two student confided in the paper that learners have a big problem with new rules under a principal who was posted there earlier this year.