‘If only I had accepted daughter’s plea to skip school’

Sherlyn Njeri, 12, one of the pupils injured at Precious Talent Top Primary School is consoled by Margaret Musundi, nurse at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), on Monday, September 23 2019. [David Njaaga, Standard]

Had Mildred Naliaka not persuaded her daughter Whitney Wekesa to return to school, she would have escaped the tragedy that struck yesterday.

Naliaka started her yesterday morning as she routinely does each school day. By 6.10am she was already up readying Whitney, her first-born, for school.

There was something odd yesterday though. Whitney, a seven-year-old Class One pupil, had thrown quite a tantrum.

She refused to have breakfast despite Naliaka’s multiple pleas.

As Whitney left for Precious Talent Top Primary School, Naliaka tended to her other child.

Whitney soon returned home from the school, which is just a few minutes’ walk from their home in Ng’ando, Dagoretti South. This was strange.

“She came back and asked me to give her money for snacks. I told her I didn’t have money and persuaded her to go back to school,” Naliaka recalled as she sat motionless on her bed, numbed by an overwhelming sadness and agony. 

She eventually convinced Whitney to return to school, a difficult task, as the young girl was quite adamant.

After Whitney returned to school, and just as Naliaka was about to lie down for a morning nap, she heard noisy discussions by neighbours and when she went out to be updated, she found out that her daughter’s school building had collapsed.

She had rushed to the school with all intentions of rescuing a daughter she hoped was alive after hearing the initial reports of the incident, but dreadfully stumbled upon her lifeless body, glaring at her as it lay all alone amidst the debris.

The scene of the collapse was hugely upsetting and complicated to the eye —debris comprising rubble, broken wood, wire mesh, iron sheets, question papers in white, blue, green, yellow and an assortment of other colours; a child’s purple dust-layered crocs, a lone dusty white and pink sock, an unzipped school bag and distressed books with missing pages.

Naliaka says she immediately identified Whitney’s body the moment she bumped into it, and immediately wanted to carry it away.

“I fought to take her body and leave with it, but they restrained me and refused,” Naliaka emotionally narrated. Soon after the rescue team restrained and assured her that she would get the body later.

Naliaka remembers painfully watching as Whitney’s body was covered up, before being taken to the mortuary.

The Standard caught up with her at their home, where neighbours had gone to condole with her.  

Numbed by an overwhelming grief, a motionless Naliaka weakly curled up against a wall, atop one of two beds in her home, hazily watched as the TV presenter announced developments of the tragedy, with images alternating between the school and the Kenyatta National Hospital, where some of the injured survivors had been taken.

“Seven pupils have died,” the presenter announced to a quiet and unmoved room, the only sounds emanating being the shuffling of feet and sighs of disbelief and agony.

Not far from Naliaka’s home, the family of 12-year-old Jacqueline Gesare was also in deep mourning. Even as news of the accident continued to flood the media, groups of friends and relatives had gathered at home.

As a first-born, 12-year-old Jacqueline was the pride of her father Evans Nyaberi, who remembers her as a “good kid” who never caused trouble.

He had left at 5.20am for work, as he does each morning, leaving his family sleeping.

Nyaberi recounted last seeing Jacqueline on Sunday night before she went to bed. The family had been in a joyous mood, he said.

“I asked Jacqueline and her younger sibling if they had completed their homework and they said they had. So I allowed them to watch a movie,” Nyaberi narrated only minutes after finding out that Jacqueline died on arrival at St Joseph’s Mission Hospital.

“I was at work when I received a call informing me that a school structure had collapsed. I left work, but was unaware of the extent of the incident. I knew the school was just one-storied and did not expect so much damage,” Nyaberi, still visibly shocked, told The Standard yesterday.

He was only informed of Jacqueline’s death when he arrived home.

When Pastor David Njeru hugged his daughter goodnight on Sunday, he did not have the slightest idea that would be the last time he would bid her goodbye.

After a family dinner and prayers, Njeru had bid farewell to his firstborn, whose dreams to become a medical doctor were well-known. The next morning, Njiru woke up at 5.30am, prepared breakfast for the family and left his home in Satellite for a meeting in Utawala.

He never got a chance to see off Germine City - his daughter - to school on the day that fate had unfairly decided was her last.

“Germine was a bright student, leader and an innovator. I am saddened by her death, but it shall be well. In the past we’ve had such cases of buildings collapsing, but it’s not until it hits you that you really feel it,” said Njeru, fighting off tears.

Germine was among eight students who perished.

Mr Njiru said he received the news of the incident through a friend, who called him as soon as it happened.

“I immediately called my wife and alerted her to go and check up on our children, but unfortunately, she could only account for Season Mwaki, our son,” said Njeru.

This prompted the couple to begin a frantic search for their daughter amid the chaos. In order to cover more ground, Njeru urged his wife to comb every corner of the school and nearby hospitals while he made his way to Kenyatta National Hospital.

Njeru had barely arrived at KNH when he received a phone call that confirmed his worst fears.

“I received a call from my sister-in-law informing me that they had found my girl. When I asked whether she was okay, she was not forthcoming. It was not until I insisted on knowing what had happened that my in-law broke the news that my daughter was no more,” said Njeru.

The father of two later made his way to St Joseph Mission Hospital in Dagoretti where her daughter’s body had temporarily been stored before being transported to City mortuary. There, he met his wife Naomi Bosibori being comforted by her sister and family members.

Teddious Karanja, a 13-year-old boy, was also among those who perished.

His aunt, Ruth Wangui, described Kinyanjui as a bright student whose love for football made him form close ties with his classmates.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, she explained how she got to know of the incident.

“I was oblivious of what was happening until I received a call from my daughter, who is in university, informing me of the tragedy. Knowing that Kinyanjui’s mum was sick and couldn’t make it, I rushed to the school only to be confronted by my worst reality. My nephew was among those that had passed on,” said Wangui.

A worker at the school told The Standard, in confidence, that prior to the collapse of the building, they had raised the issue of the structural integrity of the building with the head teacher, who promised to look into it.

“On Friday there were strong winds, which made the building shake, and immediately we informed the head teacher. It’s a tragedy that children with promising futures had to die this way,” the worker said.