Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu has transferred Mukumu Girls Principal Frida Ndolo and disbanded the school’s board of management following a disease outbreak that has killed 3 students and a teacher so far.
Sister Jane Mmbone takes over as the new school head as Ms. Ndolo, who still has one year to retire, moves to position of Provincial Director of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) office in Kakamega.
Mmbone was the immediate head of Mary Gorreti Shikoti Girls High school located a few kilometres from Kakamega town.
“We are not apportioning blame, we are not condemning anybody but considering the situation and the circumstances we are in, we have brought in a new principal for this school by the name Sister Jane Mmbone Amukoya to take over with immediate effect. We have also done the necessary consultation with Kakamega Diocese Bishop Joseph Obanyi and decided that from Monday next week we are going to have a new board of management to assist the new administration to ensure the appropriate measures are taken,” said Machogu when he toured the school on Saturday to assess the situation.
He said following an outbreak of a strange disease in the school, 350 students were taken ill at the Kakamega County General Hospital where 287 were treated and discharged while 64 were admitted.
“Out of the 64, only 12 are currently admitted at other hospitals in Mumias, Bungoma, Vihiga, Kisii and Nairobi and it has been confirmed to us that they are stable and can be discharged at any time,” he stated
Machogu noted that all foodstuff stored in the school stores will be destroyed and a new consignment procured as soon as possible.
The CS promised that the school will be opened and the situation brought back to normalcy within the next two weeks.
“When we have the students back in school, we shall have to provide them with counselling and spiritual support,” he added.
It was also reported that the results from the samples taken from the school a few days ago show that the food students consumed was contaminated with human faecal matter.
“This disease is likely to be a mixture of E. coli and Salmonella typhi which usually occurs if water sources are contaminated with these micro-organisms,” Dr. Jeff Kuria said.
Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacteria commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms that can cause food poisoning.
By Cally Imbayi
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