Pupil denied to sit for KCPE exam tries to commit suicide twice

Caroline Njeri the mother of Kennedy Githuka a pupil at St Jude school in Gachororo Juja is comforted by fellow parents after learning that her son would not sit for the national exam.The boy has threatened to commit suicide if he will not be allowed to do the exam. PHOTO BY KAMAU MAICHUHIE.

As more than 900,000 pupils prepare to sit for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCPE) exams on Tuesday, one family in Gachororo Juja is in trouble after it emerged that their son would not sit for the national exam.

Kennedy Githuka a standard eight pupil at St. Jude School allegedly learnt he would not sit for the exam last Thursday since he was not registered by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC).

According to Caroline Wanjiku who is Githuka's mother, the news shocked the entire family.

She blamed the school for the mess, adding that their efforts to know what went wrong has been met by resistance form the school administration.

Wanjiku claimed her son realised he would not sit for the exam when they went for the rehearsals at the neighboring Gachororo primary school where all his other 12 classmates have been registered to do the exams since their school is not registered by government.

"My son was told by the head teacher that he was not among those scheduled to sit for KCPE since he was not registered. I had personally paid the Sh. 900 in January required by KNEC so that my son would be registered to sit for the exam and the news that he would not do his exams came as a shock," said Ms. Wanjiku.

She said they have been living in fear over the fate of their son who has been acting strangely since he received the devastating news.

The mother said her son informed them he would commit suicide if he would not be allowed to do his exams.

"We have since Thursday prevented him from taking poison meant for poisoning rats twice. We are now living in fear and cannot leave him alone since we fear he may take his life away," said the mother.

When The Standard visited the family, the young boy said he could not stand seeing his friends that he has been learning with doing exams in his absence.

"I cannot comprehend that I will not be among this year's candidates even after being well prepared. I feel dejected and I simply cannot stand it which is why I have to take my life," said Githuka.

The proprietor of St. Jude School Lucy Waiharo refuted claims that the school deliberately refused to register the pupil for KCPE, claiming there was an agreement between her, the pupil and his mother that he will sit for the exam next year over his poor performance.

She accused some people she did not name of having a grudge with her and inciting the pupil's mother over the matter with a view of tarnishing the name of her school.

"I do not know what all the hullabaloo is all about since we had agreed with the parent and the pupil that he would not do the exam this year over his poor performance. He was supposed to repeat class eight next year and do KCPE later in the year so that he would perform better," said Mrs. Waiharo.

The head teacher of Gachororo Primary School exonerated herself from blame saying all she did was to allow the pupils from St. Jude register in the school. “The buck stops with St Jude school administration since they are the once who did not submit the name of the pupil for registration,” she said.