Parents of students at Magena Boys High School in Bomachoge Borabu Constituency have asked the Ministry of Education to disband the school's Board of Management, accusing it of failing to rebuild dormitories destroyed by fire eight months ago, even as Form Four candidates prepare to sit their KCSE in under three weeks.
Five dormitories at the school were gutted by fire eight months ago, and none has been reconstructed since. Students, including candidates sitting their final examinations this year, are sleeping in converted classrooms, congested dining halls and laboratories, with mattresses squeezed against chalkboards.
The parents, many of whom had walked for miles from Ibeno and surrounding villages, gathered at the school after the Board of Management wrote a strongly worded letter and held a press briefing last week blaming area leaders, among them Bomachoge Borabu MP Obadiah Barongo, Kisii Governor Simba Arati, Senator Richard Onyonka and Woman Representative Dorice Donya Aburi, for failing to fund the reconstruction.
That approach angered parents, who said the Board had overstepped its role by publicly criticising leaders instead of appealing to them for support.
"The Board has lost courtesy," said Josephat Mogaka, a parent of a Form Three student. "How do you insult the very leaders you are begging for help? Leadership is not an ATM. These dorms were burnt by our own children, not by the MP or the Governor. You don't demand; you request with humility."
Magena Boys has a history of dormitory fires, with old boys recalling at least three major incidents over the past two decades, often following unrest over mock examination results, denied entertainment or strict discipline. Florence Nyaboke, whose two sons attended the school, said parents were tired of bearing the cost each time.
"We are tired of this cycle," Nyaboke said. "After every fire, it is parents who are asked to pay extra, and leaders who are begged to contribute. But no one ever asks why our children keep burning their own home."
A visit to the school found double-decker beds occupying a Form Two classroom in place of desks, with clothes hanging on window grills and the smell of paraffin from stoves boys use to iron. Some candidates said they were revising under trees because their classroom had been converted into a dormitory.
"I have no concentration. We sleep 40 in a class that should hold 30 desks. At night we step on each other to go out. How do you expect me to get a C+?" one candidate said, declining to be named for fear of being sent home.
The school principal declined to comment, watching journalists from a distance. A teacher who requested anonymity said he was operating under pressure from a Board accused of dominating the school's affairs.
"Even the principal feels the pinch. He is stifled. He wants to speak but he can't. The Board runs everything like a private kiosk," the teacher said.
In a signed resolution read by their chairman, parents apologised to elected leaders over what they called the Board's "arrogant and political approach" and appealed for forgiveness on behalf of the school. They also asked Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba, who hails from Kisii, to visit the school and witness the conditions firsthand.
"We ask the CS to disband this Board of Management with immediate effect. It has outlived its usefulness and lost the moral authority to run a school. We need a new, visionary team that understands education, not politics," the parents said in their resolution.
As evening fell over the school, students lined up outside a makeshift kitchen for supper, their dormitories still in ashes and their examinations now weeks away.
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