Three more schools shut as riots persist
Standard Team
Two Kathiani High School students were yesterday arrested
by police as they attempted to petrol-bomb a Girls’ School in Kangundo.
The two who are being held at Kinyui Police Post attempted
to storm the nearby Kinyui Girls High School but were nabbed by officers on patrol.
The school is under a 24-hour security surveillance
following three attempts by strangers to set it ablaze.
The outsiders, mainly students from schools that have been
shut, have been taunting the girls to walk out of their institution which is one of the
few in Kangundo that has been spared the wave of recent student unrest.
The neighbouring Kinyui Boys was shut last week after
rampaging students set ablaze the dormitories in an orgy of violence.
Two litres of petrol were seized from the arrested
suspects.
Anxiety has been building in many Kangundo schools
following the wave of unrests with some principals contemplating closing their
institutions before the end of the term.
So far, 12 schools in Kangundo and Machakos which have been
hit by the riots have been shut with property estimated over Sh30 million destroyed.
At the same time, 14 students from Kiboko Secondary in
Kangundo are being held at the Ndonyo Sabuk Police Station following an attempted arson at
the institution.
Ndonyo Police boss Peter Kimuyu told the East African
Standard that the students attempted to raze a food store on Saturday but were repulsed by
police.
A litre of petrol was also recovered by the officers hidden
near the food store.
Elsewhere, about 200 Form Three students of Kianyaga High
School in Kirinyaga District were yesterday morning sent home after they went on the
rampage.
It was among five schools from Central Province that were
rocked by student disturbances where property worth thousands of shillings was destroyed.
Other affected schools are Mutige Secondary, Aguthi,
Nyagatugu and Kariua.
In Kianyaga, riot police were called in when the rowdy
students went on the rampage.
The school principal, Mr Muriuki Kiragu said trouble
started at around 9.30 pm on Sunday when Form 3 students started stoning the Agricultural
workshop with stones.
When he tried to talk to calm them, they became rowdy and
started running all over the place.
The students have had an uneasy relationship with
school’s administration in the last one week which they claimed punished them
unfairly.
Elsewhere, property worth over two million shillings was
yesterday destroyed by striking students of Naivasha Mixed Secondary School.
The school management immediately closed down the
institution indefinitely and sent home the over 400 students as investigations into the
incident commenced.
Trouble started when the deputy head teacher, identified
only as Omwoka expelled a Form Four student for indiscipline.
The student declined to leave the institution and his
classmates who were sitting for exams joined him in solidarity and defied directives.
Meanwhile, Marmanet Mixed Secondary School in Laikipia
district has been closed after students went on the rampage protesting poor diet.
The 195 students woke up on Sunday and immediately put off
the lights before destroying the administration block, a computer room and classrooms. The
dormitories were not spared either.
The students then walked out of school in the 2 am
incident.
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