Questions raised after boy’s death

Parents of a 20-year-old Form Four student who died in a school in Kisumu last Friday have demanded to know his postmortem results.

This, they say, is due to conflicting reports about whether Austin Ouma, who was a student at Otieno Oyoo High School in Rabuor, was involved in a fight before he collapsed.

The boy reportedly collapsed and died at 3 p.m. after being hit by a fellow student hours after taking a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination.

Police confirmed that they are investigating circumstances under which Ouma passed away.

His father William Agumba told the Sunday Nation that his only demand is that the the cause of his son’s death be revealed.

“According to the nurse-in-charge at the Rabuor Health Centre, where he was taken, the students said that my boy was beaten by another.

“The school denies this, saying he just collapsed. I want the truth through the postmortem,” he said.

An emotional Mr Agumba said that Ouma was a promising student on whom he had banked a lot of hope to perform well in the national examinations.

“I always made sure that my son was in school and that he had all the basic needs,” he said.

“I sold my calves and goats and Ouma had promised to give me very good results. It is unfortunate that will not happen again.”

COLLAPSED WHILE REVISING

The Form Four student, whom the father described as peace-loving, had just finished a physics paper when he was allegedly kicked on the neck by a schoolmate.

However, the school’s principal, Mr Evans Ndago, denies this.

“As far as we know, the boy collapsed when he was revising for next week’s paper with his friends, who reported the incident immediately. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at the nearby health centre,” Mr Ndago said.

The school’s administration had on Saturday organised a counselling session for Form Four students, whom the principal said panicked when they learnt about Ouma’s death.

“We had to call a bishop to come and counsel the boys because the exams are going on. They were very much affected by the news but are now calm and they have been advised to do well in their remaining papers to honour their departed schoolmate,” he said.

Mr Ndago said about the boy:

“He was one of our best students. At index 15, we expected very good results from the boy who had shown a lot of potential.”

The principal said that the student had no history of a recurrent disease.

“He was healthy, and never have we even had to admit him at the hospital because of being critically ill,” he stated.

Ouma’s mother said that he was fine when she visited him on Thursday.

“He had called to say that he was lacking soap and other basic amenities. When I saw him, he was healthy. I do not know how he died,” she said.