Old School: The ‘Blue Ambassadors’ of Katilu Boys

Many secondary school students don’t know that Form 1s and 2s were humiliated across the country via wearing shorts — and had to deal with the rapacious mosquitoes and biting cold that greets the country in April.

That humiliation ended around mid 1990s, and for Katilu Boys, it took a famous riot that saw students burn down a fence — they wanted to be granted the right to wear long trousers — in 1996.

And so, they switched from brown shorts, that made them look like young boys, to navy-blue trousers and sky-blue shirts. The new-look resembled that of a traffic cop, earning them the moniker ‘Blue Ambassadors.’

After protestant missionaries settled in the southern parts of Kenya, only the Catholic Church ventured northwards, setting up the school in Turkana South sub-county in 1968 under the Diocese of Lodwar. It is an integrated school, where even the blind can enrol.

The arid geographical location of Katilu Boys saw students facing many challenges, including food shortages (for which they famously rioted in June 2011), walking for kilometres to fetch water when the school pump broke down, besides trekking for over 20 kilometres to access the Lodwar-Kitale main road.

The school has stuck with the old ‘Blue Baby’ school bus,  KZS 219, but like most high schools, they recently acquired a new one. Katilu Boys alumni succeed in life and majority pursue engineering courses.

Notable alumni include Turkana Central MP, Hon John Lodepe Nakara, Ng’itira Akure of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Starlon Ikaal Juma, a petroleum engineer with Tullow Oil and Simon Kuany, a South Sudanese from Kakuma refugee camp who pursued mineral engineering at the University of Toronto.

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