Girl commits suicide after school allegedly fails to readmit her after eloping
Ms Everline Achieng in a pensive mood as she narrates the last moments with her daughter Rose Awino, 14, who committed suicide after she was allegedly denied readmission to school. Awino had been away from school for about three weeks after eloping with a man. PHOTO | PATRICK LANGAT | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Rose Awino, a Standard Six pupil, had been away from home between February 3, 2015 and February 24, 2015 before she returned.
- When she was taken back to Kondele Primary School by her mother Wednesday morning, they were asked to go back home until the administration decided on her case.
- Awino who was later found dangling from a rope attached to a post in their house.
- According to Mr Samson Owino, a village elder, the school refused to readmit her claiming she would be a bad example to other pupils.
A 14-year-old girl committed suicide at her home in Kisumu’s Kondele Estate on Wednesday after she was allegedly denied readmission to school after eloping.
Rose Awino, a Standard Six pupil, had been away from home between February 3, 2015 and February 24, 2015 before she returned.
She was cohabiting with a man during that period.
When she was taken back to Kondele Primary School by her mother Wednesday morning, they were asked to go back home until the administration decided on her case.
Awino who was later found dangling from a rope attached to a post in their house.
She was apparently angered by the school’s failure to allow her back.
The school administration apparently refused to readmit her claiming she would be a bad example to other pupils.
Her mother Everline Achieng, a cook at Kenya Queens Primary School in the estate, said she was called from her work place at around noon with information that her daughter had hanged herself in their one-bedroomed house.
“A neighbour and one of my children came running saying that my daughter was no more,” a distraught Ms Achieng told Nation.co.ke at her home Wednesday.
The mother of five said that her daughter had run away from home for three weeks in the company of a female cousin who is almost her age.
Ms Achieng said she reported to police that her daughter was missing.
REPORTED DISAPPEARANCE TO POLICE
“We went to the police station to report her disappearance and had been looking for her since then,” she said.
Ms Achieng said her daughter had disappeared earlier when she was only four years old.
“The first time she disappeared for over a month. She was very young and was found by a Good Samaritan,” she said.
She explained that when her daughter came back on Tuesday after the latest disappearance, they talked at length and agreed that she would go back to school and continue with her studies.
“I cannot understand why she ended her life. She was calm and reserved,” said the emotional woman.
According to Mr Samson Owino, a village elder, during her absence, the girl was living with a man in Nyangeta Village near Miwani, about 10 kilometres from her home.
“Our attempts to arrest the man she was staying with bore no fruit because she could not give his exact location,” said Mr Owino.
He added that the girl’s teachers were to blame for the action she took.
“The teachers’ sentiments that she was going to be a bad example and that she would spoil others in class following her eloping must have angered her,” he said.
