History explains Itierio Boys' act to burn school
Police officers collects samples of debris from one of the burnt dormitory in Itierio Boys High School on June 27, 2016. Mike Okoth Origi, one of Kenya’s most successful footballers, scored a goal for Itierio during their successful campaign in 1987. PHOTO | BENSON MOMANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Their delicate balance between studies and football placed the school on a pedestal, an enviable reputation that came tumbling with the strike of a match on Saturday night — because of a football match!
It is a rather unfortunate twist of irony that football features prominently in Itierio Boys High School’s latest foray into the headlines.
News that students at the Kisii school burnt down seven of their 12 dormitories after being denied permission to watch Saturday’s drab Euro 2016 football match between Croatia and Portugal reverberated all the way to the European Union capital of Brussels.
Itierio first stole the limelight in 1987 when they won the national secondary schools football title during a golden era in which they dominated the sport at the provincial and national levels.
Mike Okoth Origi, one of Kenya’s most successful footballers, scored a goal for Itierio during their successful campaign in 1987.
Okoth, a retired goalkeeper-turned-striker based in Brussels, who played for clubs in Kenya, Oman and Belgium, on Monday expressed his shock at the developments at his alma mater.
Incidentally, Okoth’s son, Divock Origi, plays for Liverpool in the English Premier League and is currently in France with the Belgian national team for the Euro 2016 tournament.
“It’s like burning and destroying your future,” Okoth, a former Harambee Stars striker, told the Daily Nation by phone from Brussels.
“These students should know that what they did will come back to haunt them in the future when they will be reminded that they burnt down their school,” he said. “It will destroy their future when they look for jobs.”
Okoth was in Itierio’s golden football “Class of 1987” that included Henry Motego, Salim Mabruk, Vincent Abuga, Evans Nyariki and Richard Otambo, who all would be national team stars.
The golden boys of Itierio would double for Kisii’s Shabana FC in the Kenya National Football League, and even played in the African club competition. They were eliminated from the 1988 Africa Cup Winners’ Cup by Zambian champions Kabwe Warriors.
Their delicate balance between studies and football placed the school on a pedestal, an enviable reputation that came tumbling with the strike of a match on Saturday night — because of a football match!
