Row as school suspends student over hijab

Council of Islamic Preachers chairman Uasin Gishu branch, Abubakar Bini, reacts following the suspension of a form 1 student at AIC Chebisaas Girls School in Nandi, for allegedly failing to remove Hijab. [Peter Ochieng, Standard]

A family is accusing a church-sponsored school of sending away its 13-year-old daughter for wearing a hijab.

The girl’s parents claim the student was hounded out of AIC Chebisas Girls High School in Nandi County on Monday last week after she refused to stop wearing the hijab.

The girl was in  Form One.

According to her father Iliyas Mohamed, the school’s administrators did not inform them that wearing a hijab was prohibited before she reported.

Mr Mohamed, a resident of Huruma Estate in Eldoret, told The Standard he was called by the school’s principal on January 28 and told his daughter was involved in an disciplinary case.

“I went to the school with my wife and I was told my daughter had refused to remove her hijab and dress like her Christian colleagues,” he said.

He said trouble started on Sunday last week, when the student was ordered to attend church with others despite pleading to be excused from the service because of her faith.

When contacted, Mary Mwangi, the school’s principal, said the girl’s parents withdrew her from the institution because its rules and regulations did not allow hijabs.

The Chairman of the Islamic preachers of Kenya in Uasin Gishu County, Sheikh Abubakar Bini, blamed the girl’s “suffering” on a recent ruling by the Supreme Court that allowed schools to decide their students’ dress codes.