Two Students Die, Parents Blame School

Parents blame schools as wo students die, one in City Mission Secondary School and another at KiamainaPrimary School/[Photo Courtesy]

Two students lost their lives in circumstances that were not clear and families blame their schools.

The first incident was the one reported at the City Mission Secondary School in Nakuru East. It involved a 17-year-old Form 1 student who died on Thursday morning while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Nakuru.

The hospital admitted the student, Abdullahi Mohamed Sahal, on Tuesday morning. This was just a few hours after he enrolled at the institution.

“He has been asking me to take him to a boarding school. My eldest daughter took him to school for admission on the evening of Monday. He was in a jovial mood but he fell ill shortly after admission at the school,” said Rukia Mohamed, the mother to the student.

The management of the school called the mother on Tuesday morning asking her to take her son for medical attention. “Instead of taking my child to the hospital, they called me. He had been in a coma,” said Mohammed.

The spokesperson to the family Dr. Abdi Osman explained that attempts of the family to save the student’s life bore no fruits even after placement on a life-supporting machine.

“He never recovered from the coma. It is unfortunate that the truth about what happened in the school and we suspect he was bullied,” said Dr. Abdi.

According to the post-mortem report, Sahal underwent assault with a blunt object on the left side of his head, causing a 12-centimeter fracture that caused internal bleeding.

The director of the school John Abungu refuted the report claiming foul play. “We disown any claims that the boy was in any way mishandled by anybody at the school. We informed the parents and organized for the boy to get medical attention. It is unfortunate he lost his life.”

Nakuru East Sub County Criminal Investigations officer Benson Mutie said that they had begun investigating the issue. Sahal’s friends and family conducted the burial at Nakuru Muslims cemetery on Friday.

Elsewhere in Bahati, residents battled the police as they protested the death of Duncan Mbugua whom a teacher allegedly assaulted at Kiamaina Primary School in November 2019.

Parents stormed the school, looking for the accused teacher after reports came out that the boy had succumbed to injuries at Nakuru Level Five Hospital.

John Waithaka, brother to the deceased, claimed the teacher assaulted hMbugua a week before the December closing holiday.

“He came home complaining of having a severe headache. He explained that a teacher had hit him in the head because he reported to school with unkempt hair. He has been having persistent headaches since then,” said Waithaka.

The parents brought down part of the school’s perimeter wall after the school administration denied them entry.

The school administration sent the pupils home earlier than usual even as the accused teacher remained in police custody.

“The family only reported the case when the boy died. We are waiting for the post-mortem to be done to allow for investigation,” said Bahati North Sub-County Police Commander Bernard Wamugunda at the school.