There was bullying, but we’ve made amends, says Alliance High board

Alliance High School Board of Management on Saturday admitted that there have been serious cases of bullying and apologised even as more parents came out to narrate what their children have been going through.

Board chairman Sam Ncheeri acknowledged that “these unacceptable incidents” took place at the school and reassured students and parents of their children’s safety.

And during Sunday’s founder’s service day, the chairman said parents would be updated on the incident.

Mr Ncheeri said adequate measures have been taken and would continue to be enhanced to ensure that there is never a recurrence of such incidents.

“The BOM has been actively working in concert with the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) following an in-depth investigation by the TSC that raised issues of indiscipline,” said Mr Ncheeri.

As this happened, a university lecturer who had a child at the school, was narrating to Nation how he was allegedly chased away by the school management for raising concerns over bullying of his son who was hospitalised for injuries that he sustained in 2014.

Prof Nyaga Kindiki, a dean of school of Education at Moi University, said after his protest he was reminded by the management of the school that even children of Cabinet Secretaries and other senior government officers who study at the school are beaten by prefects and therefore he was ‘nobody’.

Prof Kindiki said his son was treated at Nairobi Women’s Hospital and Nairobi Hospital for back injuries he sustained after he was beaten using blunt objects.

SUSTAINED SERIOUS INJURIES

“The boy joined the school in 2013 and left last year. He was bullied while in Form One and Two. It’s during Form Two period that he sustained serious injuries through the beating by prefects,” explained the parent.

Prof Kindiki said despite reporting the matter to Kikuyu Police Station in March 2014, under OB number 54, no action was taken as police officers seemed to have been compromised by the school management.

“My son told me that the punishment were taking place between 2 am and 3 am in a certain room. He was beaten up by nine prefects,” said the lecturer.

He added that the school management was always dismissive and could not take action against the prefects despite being identified.

“But I told the principal that whatever was happening at the school will one day come out and today Kenyans have known what was happening at the school,” said Prof Kindiki.

He added that due to what his son went through, he stopped attending schools meeting but the boy insisted that he must study at Alliance and he completed and scored A minus.

“I wanted to sue the school but my son advised against it saying that his dream was to study at the school despite what he was going through and such a move would have further endangered his stay at the school,” he explained.

The lecturer added that had the boy not been subjected to the harassment, he would have performed better and welcomed action that has been taken by the government on the school management.

In his remarks, the board chairman added that the board was also concerned with bullying, saying several measures have been taken to address the problem.

RAMPANT BULLYING

“There is on-going further investigation against the deputy principal (Administration), 10 prefects including the School Captain have been demoted, six students have been suspended and initiated counselling sessions for traumatised students and remaining prefects,” he added.

He added that an acting principal has assumed office and is now firmly in-charge of the school administration under the guidance of the BOM, while a substantive replacement is sought.

“The BOM has also had important engagements with the students and teachers to obtain feedback and to reassure them and to ensure that learning continues in a conducive environment,” said the chairman.

He went on: “It is instructive to note and we hasten to acknowledge that the offences committed were grievous, prompting the Ministry of Education to call in the police to investigate criminal negligence on the part of the school administration. This has unfortunately led to the prosecution of some of the students already disciplined by the school. While the BOM will be engaging key stakeholders on the issue given that the accused perpetrators are young students, the law must take its course.”

Mr Ncheeri added that the BOM will continue to engage the TSC on other aspects of the report, saying the board is committed to address the issues raised by the TSC report on a priority basis in “our quest to secure the quality of education provided at the school”.

The report by the Ministry released last week revealed horrifying student accounts of rampant bullying at Kenya’s arguably best school.

It was coloured by one of the most horrifying cases of bullying, dubbed “action nights” and “induction” that were masterminded by school prefects in the full knowledge of the administration.

The findings led to the exit of the school principal David Kariuki last week.

In the report, investigators captured details of how prefects tortured students at the school in the name of induction, sometimes waking them at night to force them to sleep on graves of founders and to “swim” on grass.

It also included “beatings, slapping and caning with pipes”.

The report was a result of investigations of six officials from the TSC and Ministry of Education in January.

The team conducted face to face interviews with students, guidance and counselling staff, boarding master and principal, including his deputies.