NAIROBI: Administrators of a girls’ secondary school in Nairobi are in a spot for allegedly covering up the defilement of a Form One student by a teacher.
Highridge Girls School in Nairobi’s Parklands is alleged to have protected the teacher, while risking the life of the 15-year-old student, who was reportedly abused last Wednesday.
The institution is accused of inaction for two days and only took the girl to hospital on Saturday after her colleagues refused to go to class over the issue.
It has also emerged that a school official who took the victim to the Nairobi Women’s Hospital allegedly ordered her clothes to be washed in a bid to tamper with evidence.
The victim’s mother said the 27-year-old Mathematics/Biology teacher ordered her daughter to wait for him in the staff room during evening preps.
“The child told me the teacher followed her immediately and took her to a latrine wall where he raped her,” said the mother.
She said her daughter was threatened by the suspect and the school’s principal not to report the matter.
It was not until Monday when her fellow students threatened to protest that the school reported the matter to Parklands Police Station.
MEDICAL EXAMINATION
The victim’s mother, who was away from Nairobi, was informed by her sister about the ordeal after receiving a call from the police. “We first received a call from an anonymous number telling us that my daughter had a problem. Later, police called my sister to go to Parklands Police Station,” narrated the mother.
She said the fact that she has not received any call from the school up to now has disturbed her a lot: “I took my child to the school and I expected to receive the first call from them informing me about the incident, and not from the police,” she said, adding, “They must be hiding something.”
Gigiri OCPD Vitalis Otieno said the suspect would be arraigned in court after the medical examination is conducted.
The teacher was Tuesday taken to the Government Chemist at Kenyatta National Hospital for medical examination before being taken back to Parklands Police Station, where he will be held awaiting arraignment in court.
The parent is even more worried about the risk that her daughter is exposed to due to delayed medication.
“She was given post-exposure prophylaxis medication for HIV at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital,” the mother said. The drugs are supposed to be administered within 72 hours.
She has vowed to sue the school over the ordeal. She told The Standard that her daughter keeps on asking if she will be okay.
Attempts to get the school’s side of the story were futile after the institution’s security blocked journalists from seeking audience with the principal.
