8 Moi Girls' staffers ordered to give DNA samples in rape probe
Parents, anti-rape crusaders and old students of Moi Girls' in Nairobi demonstrate outside the school on June 4, 2018. They demanded resignation of the principal, Ms Jael Mureithi. PHOTO | STELLA CHERONO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Although other students raised the alarm, the school principal and the matrons did not respond to the until morning, when the victim was found on the cubicle floor, the Nation has learnt.
The students said their colleague, a 15-year old Form 2, was raped at the Elgon Hostel at around 2am while two other students were assaulted by unknown persons.
And despite the students knocking several times on the matron’s door, they said, she responded only at 5am hours after the intruder had left.
Detectives from the division of Serious Crimes Investigations and the Government Chemist on Monday took samples from eight staff members of Moi Girls’ among them six teachers for forensic analysis.
An officer from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) under which the Serious Crimes Unit fall, said the males, whose samples were taken are those who live within the school or those believed to have been at the school during the time of the rape early Saturday morning.
The DCI had sent letters to the staff members on Sunday evening, ordering them to avail themselves for DNA sampling.
The DNA tests will either place the eight suspects at the scene of crime or exonerate them.
Monday morning, the detectives made their way to the school’s staff room to extract buccal swabs from the male teachers, as old students, parents, leaders and anti-rape crusaders held demonstrations outside the school, demanding the resignation or interdiction of the school principal, Jael Murithi.
WANT HEAD TEACHER REMOVED
“We want the head teacher removed from this school. First of all, she has proved incapable of running the school. She should have been sent away after the fire. Secondly, the ministry transferred the head teachers who had stayed in schools for five years, this principal has been here for more than 13 years,” a demonstrator, Editta Ochien’g said.
She was accompanied by the Laini Saba MCA Cecilia Achien’g among others who were clad in different school uniforms.
Other parents alleged that the school management had intentionally exercised laxity in security in order to compel parents to pay Sh27,000 security fee that was communicated to them on March 28.
“We were asked to appoint one parent per class, who would open an account not linked to the school account. Only less than 20 parents agreed to pay the amount. We had a heated argument about the payment on April 14 during a meeting. We felt exploited,” a parent said.
INTRUDERS
The claims came as parents said their daughters reported several cases of having seen intruders in the school but they were dismissed.
“There were times students reported that the construction workers on the upcoming dormitory block used to drop them notes wrapped in letters with mobile phone numbers. The teachers and the matron dismissed them,” another parent said.
Members of Parliament have voiced their concerns, and urged that all girls schools in the country be fenced with a perimeter wall and armed police officers be stationed at particular schools.
The lawmakers termed the Moi Girls incident as unfortunate and traumatising to young girls as they expressed concern that girls are not safe in many schools across the country.
The MPs, Millie Odhiambo (Suba North), Samuel Atandi (Alego Usonga), Alfred Keter (Nandi Hills) and John Muchiri (Manyatta) wants the government to allocate more funds to schools to erect fences that can deter unwanted people in girls’ schools compounds.
CASES NOT REPORTED
“The government needs to take this matter of girls safety seriously, we don’t know how many of our girls have been violated and the cases not reported,” Ms Odhiambo said.
The Suba North MP said most schools especially in the rural areas do not even have fences exposing students to great dangers.
““As Parliament resumes its sessions today, we need to critically look at the legislations that can protect our girls because they face a lot of problems,” said Mr Atandi.
Mr Keter pointed out that Parliament needs to check whether inspectors from the Ministry of Education are qualified.
“The Moi Girls incident is not only traumatising to the students but also to parents who dig deep in their pockets to pay school fee, Mr Keter said.
