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Miss Marjorie Murray, a missionary, established Murray Girls High School as a girls’ primary boarding school at the Coast in 1941 with one of the earliest African teachers being father of former Mwatate MP Maj (rtd) Marsden Madoka.
The Church Missionary Society (CMS) would later develop it as a co-education institution in 1960 before converting it into a full girls’ secondary school the following year with Rev V. Verbi, a white missionary in-charge of CMS, donating the 38 acres where it sits along the Mwatate-Wundanyi road.
The first African principal of Murray Girls took over in 1968. Politician Kenneth Matiba fundraised for its electrification, while retired President Daniel arap Moi donated Sh1million in 2000 for its modern administration block.
Agatha Mawondo Nimrod, one of the pioneer students, became the first woman from Taita to have a university degree after graduating from Uganda’s Makerere University.
Notable alumni guided by the motto, ‘Through endeavour we succeed,’ include; former Taveta MP Mwacharo Kubo who schooled there when it was still a boys’ and girls’ school. Others who wore brown skirts, white blouses and coffee-brown pullovers include Prof Agnes Mwang’ombe of the University of Nairobi, former High Commissioner to Pakistan and Algeria, Mishi Mwatsahau, Taita Taveta Deputy Governor Mary Ndiga Kibuka and Milimani Law Courts’ Senior Principal Magistrate Joyce Gandani.
Other ‘Murrians’ include Phoebe Kiteto, the first female principal in Taita Taveta district, and Beatrice Adu, both commissioners with the Teachers’ Service Commission. Others who enjoyed fresh bread from the bakery and spent nights at Mbela and Care dormitories are Winnie Tsuma, legal researcher with Kilifi County Government and Timna Komora, the legal counsel at Tana River CountyAssembly.
Then there is Rose Mghoi Macharia, a commissioner at Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, who also rode in the school’s aging truck.
