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| Students at the School's Assembly Point Photo Courtesy: MKBH Facebook |
NO ONE SAW IT COMING
On 23rd
September 2007, at about 6pm (It was a Saturday, barely a month to KCSE), a
fellow Form Four whom I’m forever grateful to approached me and asked me quietly “Do you believe that there can be a
strike in this school?”. I almost went like, are you crazy? No one would contemplate such a thing, I thought. Besides, the admin would have got
wind of it a long time ago. So I
said ‘NO’. I was WRONG, the guy had intel! Still, he told me be ready for anything.
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| Makueni Boys' School Assembly Point/Staff Room Photo Courtesy: MKBH Facebook |
THE SIGNS HAD BEEN
THERE ALL ALONG
That week, all
bulbs in the Form 2 & 3 classes had mysteriously gone missing, no
one raised an eyebrow. Not just that, pins had been removed from all FIRE EXTINGUISHERS
in the school.
LESSON #1 School
administrators should never take anything for granted.
Since the
perpetrators could not gain access into Form 4
classes, they disconnected the power. They did it so well that technicians
couldn’t trace where the problem was (I hope those guys are engineers now or
something of the sort). Left with no choice, teachers took some students to
the Assembly Hall, and others to the Laboratories and Dining
Hall. They played right into the trap!
AND THEN IT HAPPENED!
At around 8pm, smoke and fire engulfed Malinda dormitory, the furthest on
the slope. By the time teachers were noticing, it was already too late. Then
came the explosions (Remember the stolen bulbs? They were now being hurled into
the windows, the impact producing loud explosions).
The Deputy Principal
nicknamed ‘Mothos’ summoned everybody for a hurried roll call, hoping to catch the criminals. But
surprisingly, everybody was in.
INCIDENT WAS DOWNPLAYED
The next day, the Press
and parents were all over the place. The Principal told them it was a small ‘electrical fault’ which would be sorted. New mattresses
and other stuff were quickly purchased to keep students in school.
LESSON #2 If students want
to go home, let them go. This may seem simplistic, but a school administration
that appears to downplay the storm brewing inside may just shoot itself in the foot. Like the recent case of Malindi High. What would it cost a
Minister to just close down schools? Or a Principal to tell
students to go home? Ego, of course. But that could prevent damage to property,
and God forbid, even loss of lives.
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| The School Logo Courtesy: MKBH Facebook |
As you can already predict,
on the second day, all hell broke loose. Students
went on the rampage, destroying window panes, and whatever could be broken
into. They even broke into the staffroom, wrote nasty things on the board. I’m reliably informed that some notorious ones urinated on the walls, a
nasty one maybe to ask the administration ‘mtado?’Anyway, to their credit, some students stole
teachers’ textbooks so that they could revise at home!
SLEEPING ON THE COLD FLOOR
Long story short, we
took to the nearby forest after the police were called in. I don’t know how we
ended up there, but we spent the night sleeping on the COLD FLOOR at the DC’s office
in Wote.
After this, teachers had no option but to let us go home. WORD QUICKLY
SPREAD to other schools. Not to be left behind, those students soon joined us
at home, having successfully burnt their dormitories.
To this date, I’ve
never really known the main reason for the strike. Oppression and caning by
teachers, slapping by prefects topped the agenda, but there were also issues of bad food, sijui school bus, exams,
etc. It is now more than 8 years after the incident, and the reasons why
students go on the rampage remain almost the same.
Boys will always be boys.
FOOTNOTE #1 I recently
met a former student who supported the strike (he was in Form 2 then), and he doesn’t
regret participating. Says it brought great change.
NB: This may not be the exact chronology of
events. Old Boys, feel free to correct me where you can.
FOOTNOTE #2 That
December, the country was plunged into Post Election Violence following the
disputed results of the General Election. I know I may sound a bit paranoid, but I honestly
hope and pray that this won’t be the case in 2017. Peace!
Ni mimi wenu, Mwangangi.
