Is Moi Girls School Nairobi management sleeping on the job?

[Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

To reach such a conclusion does not need much  persuasion seeing as it is that this particular school has been in the limelight twice in as many years, but for all the wrong reasons.

The first time, it was when a student set a dormitory on fire and in the process, a number of girls lost their lives in the inferno. Two things arose from that tragedy. First, the student who set the dorm on fire might have had a mental issue which the school management through the teachers and matrons failed to detect, or did but ignored.

The aspect of negligence came out strongly after survivors confirmed that they had reported an earlier threat by the same student to burn the dormitory. That was inexcusable. What truly portrays the management of the school in bad light is recent rape case which the management frantically tried to sweep under the carpet by urging students to keep quiet about it.

It is sad and absurd that the school management even tried to bribe the victim with a scholarship to keep quiet as claimed by fellow students. This is despicable of people entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding students left in their care.

It is therefore impossible for the school management to plead innocence. It has been sleeping on the job and needs to be punished for it to act as warning and deterrent to other negligent school managements across the country. Parents need to feel and know that their children are safe to concentrate on raising their fees and upkeep money.

 

Mr Mwaniki is a resident of Nairobi