Parents keep pupils home as deadly fissure threatens Ndogo Primary School in Gilgil

It has been two days since students returned to school, but those of Ndogo Primary School in Jaika, Gilgil sub-county, are set to stay home for an unknown period of time due to a stalemate between the parents and the county government.

Just about 100 meters from the playground is a 40-meter-long fissure that’s about 1.5 meters deep, where two students at the same school lost their lives two weeks ago.

13-year-old Oscar Macharia Mwangi and his five-year-old sister Silvia Njeri died after a trench collapsed on them at Ndogo Primary School in Gilgil Sub-County, Nakuru County, on April 11.

The tragedy claimed their lives as they were playing in an area of the school compound along the fissure when the ground gave way, burying them.

The county then promised to fulfill it up before students resumed, and that was after a first promise when the fissure formed in 2024.

Agitated parents on April 27 held a protest, and on April 28, met to deliberate on the way forward for the students.

“When we came here years ago, we found the first fissure. All the water from the mountain was flowing into this hole, and we did not know where it was going. We have tried to engage the county because we have a fissure here, very close to the school,” says Joseph Maina, a resident of Jaika-Eburru village.

He notes that about two weeks ago, he was among the people who were rescuing the children who had been buried by soil.

“The Government should either fill up the fissure or provided a waterway through which the water can flow,” he says.

Mary Wangari, a village elder, says parents, had previously pooled resources and partitioned part of the school farm to prevent children from going near the fissures.

“Children are not in school because, as parents, we fear another incident happening. Yesterday, the students who came to school early were curious and went straight to the hole to see where their fellow students had died, and that is what prompted us to hold protests,” she notes.

She says during the burial, the governor came and promised to help put up a fence but as of the day prior, nothing had been done.

“We want this fissure filled up or fenced off so that our children can return to school. As parents, we have decided that if it is not filled, the children will not return to school. It is very sad to lose two children at once, and it has not pleased us as parents at all,” she says.

“Right now, as we live in fear because the situation may exacerbate, which will leave us helpless,” she says

Samuel Mwangi Maina, father of the two deceased, says what happened should never happen again, and that the fissure should be addressed so that the same tragedy is not repeated.

“The children are not all gone in this area, even if am left with none, I will still get more. But this fissure is still here, and we are not relocating, so the county should address this matter urgently,” he says emotionally.