By Amoto Ndiewo
Garissa KNUT secretary Abdirizak Hussein has said that the directive by Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha that students found capable of arson will be expelled from school and denied admissions into other secondary school cannot work.
His sentiments come after the Board of Management of Garissa High School met yesterday after one of the dormitories in the school was torched.
‘Neither the board of management nor the principal has powers,’ he said.
The school’s senior principal Lawrence Nyakweba, who seems to know the culprits, asserted that they must face the full face of the law.
‘They must be arrested regardless of the position they hold in the society,’ he swore.
The principal, who is a non-local, did not clarify whether he was targeting teachers, students or outsiders who might have self-interest in the school affairs.
One of the teachers at the institution raised an alarm when he saw smoke coming from one of the dormitories.
‘There were no casualties but we didn’t salvage anything from the burning dormitory. Failure by Garissa Fire brigade to respond to our frantic SOS calls on time led the students and the teachers to use basins and buckets of water to douse the fire,’’ Nyakweba said.
Interestingly, when the principal of County High School got wind of the indefinite closure of Garissa High, he immediately ordered his students to go home. Strangely Garissa University has also been closed indefinitely.
Talking to the press after the Friday meeting, the chairman of the Board of Management Abdirahman Godad said investigations are going on and they will be only be able to react after seeing and analysing the report.
‘We are eagerly waiting for the investigative team to unearth what happened on the fateful day when the dormitory was set on fire,’ said Godad, a retired County Director of Education.
Last week, the Ministry of Education directed that learners will be going for a mid-term break from November 19th -23rd. This came as a result of teachers complaining that the students needed a break from the tightly overcrowded academic calendar which was brought about by the yearlong closure of schools to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Reacting to the fire incidents in the various institutions across the country, Prof Magoha warned that those found culpable of burning schools will be prosecuted and their records kept and used against them while seeking employment.
Despite such threats, the trend of arson in schools has spread like wildfire.
‘The government won’t rebuild any burned school, parents will have to foot such bills and also pay school fees for their children,’ he added.
Interestingly ,some parents have been accused of colluding with students to cause havoc in schools in order oust their principals while other parents have accused principals of using arson as a cash cow to get rich while doing the repair work .
Students of Kakamega High who recently torched a dormitory were each asked to pay Shs 9,823 to pay for the damages caused. A parent in Buruburu Girls claimed the principal ,who said only a cubicle had been razed down, is now asking each of the 1,400 students to pay Sh1, 500 amounting to Sh2.1 million.
