How 'bush' bullies terrorised 'monos' to no ends and even forced their principal to quit
The principal is blamed for presiding over massive bullying believed to be carried out by prefects and senior students for a long time without him taking any action.
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The principal who has been under investigations for some time now tendered his resignation to the Teachers Service Commission who has since accepted the his request to retire early before the official age of 60 years.
Kariuki is blamed for presiding over massive bullying believed to be carried out by prefects and senior students for a long time without him taking any action.
Parents raised the alarm with the Ministry of Education early this year following numerous complaints by the students forcing the ministry to launch investigations.
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The Ministry carried out the investigations in January and February and talked to several students and teachers to ascertain the claims.
On Monday, while speaking at Utawala Academy in Nairobi, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i admitted that the Ministry was carrying out investigations into allegations of bullying of Form One students in secondary schools.
“The Ministry received several complaints of mistreatment of students in the school. It has been an investigation that has been going on for long and is not related to last year’s drop in form four examinations at all. TSC was involved in this investigation,” said a source at the Ministry.
A meeting is planned at Alliance on Saturday when students return from half term break.
Cases of head teachers leaving the running of schools under the hands of prefects are not however unique and the practice is thought to be rampant across the country.
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On January this year, a form one student at Maseno School claimed he was sodomised by senior students at the school.
His brother who had gone to pick the student after the school contacted them, found him in deplorable condition on the verge of mental and physical breakdown.
The school administration however denied reports of sodomy and took no action, claiming instead the boy had just been beaten according to the victim guardian.
While todays bullying in not as bad as it used to be in 90s when ‘mono’ was the official name for form ones, the current bullying is but worse since it has not only embraced physical abuse but sexual abuse as well.
A 2007 report by the Africa Mental Health Foundation found that bullying in Kenyan schools is higher than trends around the world. The research was conducted in 17 public secondary schools and found that 82 percent of the students had had their belongings stolen, 63 percent had been beaten and 64 percent had been blackmailed or threatened. It’s so common it’s essentially a part of the education system.
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