Parents alarmed as Jomo Kenyatta Secondary is shut again after student rampage

Barely two weeks after students returned to school, the compound of Jomo Kenyatta Boys High School bears the remains of another fire that has disrupted the start of the new term.

Clothes and other personal belongings are scattered across the compound outside the affected building, while shattered glass lies around the school's windows.

A section of the school’s kitchen and dining hall is blackened by smoke, with cooked food, cups, utensils and other kitchen equipment scattered across the floor. Large cooking pots have been left strewn around the kitchen, adding to the disorder left in the wake of the unrest.

This is the third time this year the school has gone up in chaos, with each time parents required to cover for the damages.

John Kamotho, a Form Four parent at the school, says students have been sent home repeatedly over the past year, with parents often not given clear explanations for the expulsions.

He says parents would normally receive WhatsApp messages informing them that their children had been sent home, but on some occasions, they simply see their children arrive home without any prior communication from the school, and it is often explained as disturbances at the school and the school seeking the intervention of education officials.

Kamotho says the students have been sent home two times this year, with this being a third time; on each occasion, parents have been required to pay for damages before their children can return to school.

“For instance, parents paid Sh4,400 per student after the first incident last term. Parents were again required to pay Sh11,500 per student this term to cover other damages, a second incident still in the second term,” he says.

All this is on top of the annual school fees amount of Sh53,000 required, with parents also paying an additional Sh2,000 per term for a program to cover the syllabus known as EPL.

The parents also lament what they describe as the school’s lack of concern for the welfare of the students, saying its priority appears to have been assessing property damage rather than checking on the students, including confirming how many had left the school and whether they had arrived home safely.

Gerald Muraguri, a 2003 alumnus, notes his disappointment with the direction the school is headed.

“It used to be a very good school. Some of us were here and went through the system. Unfortunately, we don’t know what’s happening to the boys nowadays, and this is very sad,” he says.

According to the Bahati Sub-County Police Commander, Elisha Obado, police received a call from the principal at around 8:30 p.m. and responded to the school, where they found a tense situation.

“We found the boys screaming and having left their dormitories. We were running around with them, trying to quell them,” he says.

He notes that the students, at around 1 or 2 a.m., set fire to the school’s food store and a house belonging to the watchman.

According to the commander, preliminary reports indicate that the unrest was sparked by the students’ opposition to the school’s new principal, who has been at the school for barely a week, as well as an annual anniversary event held every September. The event, which became a school tradition in 2022, involves a visit to the girls’ school.

The students also destroyed the school administration block, which had been rebuilt after it was burnt down during an earlier incident last term.

“Six students were arrested this morning with school property in their bags. They are being processed, and we are still conducting investigations,” he says, adding that about 17 students sustained minor injuries during the fracas and were taken to Bahati Sub-County Hospital, where they were treated and discharged.