Drunk Teachers, Students Arrested With Chang’aa As They Travelled For A School Trip.

Thika police Saturday morning impounded a Githurai-Bound bus transporting drunk students of a Nairobi school.

Six students, from New Mwangaza Mixed Secondary School in Kariobangi along with three of their teachers who had accompanied them, were locked up after their bus was seized near Witeithie Estate along the Thika Super Highway.

Upon inspecting the bus, police discovered more than ten litres of chang’aa packed in polythene bags and a five-litre jerry can plus several bottles of wines and spirits.

Several students and their teachers were found drunk with others said to be indulging in immoral and adult-rated activities.

“One of the girls was found completely naked in the bus,” said a source that did not want to be identified.

The students were said to be mixing the illicit alcohol with Malta Guinness drinks which was their way of disguising their activities.

It is alleged that the police noted some funny activities from the bus as it was heading towards Thika Town and stopped the vehicle. There was loud music and a very good number of the students were said to be dancing at the bus corridor as they sipped the liquor. It is said that the manner in which some of them were dancing and holding each other was so explicit and unacceptable for students.

The bus was also said to be ferrying excess passengers, a matter that landed the bus driver and his conductor in the cold police cells pending being arraigned in court.

Speaking to the students while at the Thika Police Station, they all looked unperturbed and did not worry about the repercussions of their actions. They vehemently denied using any alcohol despite the evidence and majority of them looking as though they were under the influence of alcohol.

“We were heading to Ol Donyo Sabuk for a school trip. There were some of us who were standing in the bus and had Malta (Guinness). So, when the police stopped us, they alleged that they were taking alcohol. 

They also accused the driver of overloading the bus with excess passengers,” said one student who just identified himself as Benson.

He claims that the police mistook the Malta Guinness drinks for alcohol, thus the reason for arresting the students.

“Hao wanne wameshikwa ni innocent. Wameambiwa wamekunywa chang’aa. Hiyo chang’aa hatuijui. Si tunajua tu ni malti. Malti huwa zero percent alcohol,” he said. (The four who were arrested were innocent. 

They have been accused of taking chang’aa. We don’t know that chang’aa. What we know is that they were drinking Malta Guinness. Malta Guinness is zero percent alcohol.)

One of the girls who did not want to be identified for fear of the consequences denied that any one of them had taken any alcohol. She insisted that they were only taking sodas and coffee.

The police refused to give an official statement saying that investigations were still ongoing. 

By the time we left the station, the police were making arrangements to transport back home those students who were not under arrest. 

This incident come at a time when the country is grappling with a crazy wave of schools unrest that has seen more than 80 schools torched and over 7,000 students sent home over strikes.

Last year, a Nairobi-bound bus that was impounded and taken to the Kiangwaci Police Post in Kirinyaga after 45 students were arrested for being drunk and engaging in sexual activities in the bus.