By Justina Chomba
The attempt by 70 boys from Anestar Bahati school to sneak into the dormitory of Anestar Precious Girls Secondary School in Nakuru is a grim reminder of the St. Kizito Secondary School tragedy in July, 1991 where 19 girls died and 71 raped by boys in the same schools. The school was a mixed boarding school.
Had all the seventy boys managed to enter the girls’ dorm, the damage would be major both from injuries during escape and sexual assault.
Even as Directorate of Criminal Investigations and National Police claimed that the boys’ motive was unclear.
Besides being an indicator of the gravity of the social rot in the society that has been inculcated in our children, the Anestar case also brings out security gaps for millions of children, especially girls in boarding schools.
It also emphasizes the need to abolish boarding schools which were introduced in Africa during the colonial times by missionaries to herd children away from their “pagan” parents and indoctrinate Christianity in them.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary General, Wilson Sossion who has been pushing for the abolition of boarding schools said they were colonial institutions meant to curb retrogressive traditions such as cattle rustling and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
“Why do we still have such institutions in Kenya, a child should be with their teachers from 8:00 in the morning to 5:00 after which they are released back to their parents for disciplining, the role of the teacher is to impart academic knowledge and not parenting,” he said.
Sossion was speaking in the wake of increased school riots and arson where students have been torching dormitories.
He said there are no boarding schools in the developed countries in Europe and America and urged the government to abolish them in Kenya.
“Education standards in Europe and America are still very high yet they do not have boarding schools, they should also be banned here to allow parents more time with their children,” said Sossion.
Sossion added that the moral decay among teenagers and the youth was because parents had abdicated their role of instilling good morals.
The government too has mooted the idea of doing away with boarding schools with the introduction of Competency Based Curriculum.
Under the 2-6-3-3 system, grade one to nine will mean primary school with grade 10 to 12 taking up the secondary school education section.
A task force set up by the Ministry of Education found out that boarding schools were congested and expensive with the long spells in boarding schools and limited contact with parents being blamed for the indiscipline among teenagers and youths.
It is not clear whether the St Kizito incident advised former President Daniel Moi’s and education stakeholders to slowly face out mixed boarding schools which with the last national public secondary school being Nakuru High School.
It has since been divided into Nakuru Boys High School and Nakuru Girls High School complete with different amenities.
Only a few private mixed boarding schools are remaining with the need to abolish boarding schools gaining momentum from both the government and private sectors.
Boys sneak out for their schools in the very late in the night and into the neighbouring girls’ dormitories with one motive.
However, the Anestar incident shows that boys seem to be getting bolder because attempts by the police to scare them away seemed futile compelling them to shoot in the air.
On Monday, 12 April Principal Secretary in the State Department of University Education and Research, Simon Nabukwesi said the 10 students who sneaked into a girls’ dormitory in Nakuru will face the law once they finish writing their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations.
Nabukwesi said the government will take action against the 10 students who sneaked into a girl’s dormitory in the dead of the night.
The PS maintained that the law will take its course once they finish their exams which have ended.
The ten students at Anestar Boys High School Bahati were arrested after they sneaked into their sister school, Anestar Precious Girls on Thursday night with another sixty boys managing to escape.
All the seventy candidates have been allowed to use the school’s boarding facility rescinding a previous decision by the management which had kicked the suspects out of the school only allowing them to come in to sit their papers.
The management had declined to accommodate the suspects in its boarding facility following the incident.
“They are sitting the rest of the papers inside the school and spending the night with the rest of the students as usual,” said Nabukwesi.
