Mang’u High School students protest against administration.

More than 100 students from Mang’u High School Thika on Friday staged a peaceful walk out to protest against what they referred to ‘victimisation and preferential treatment’ by the administration.

The students were against the suspension of one of the prefects, Enoch Ngwethi, who had been accused of beating up a Form Two student.

The institution’s CCTV cameras evidently showed the prefect assaulting his colleague.

“This morning (Friday), we sent home one of the student prefects who had on Monday slapped another student for allegedly sitting down during the morning assembly. After the assembly, he followed him up to the classroom and beat him again which is against our code of conduct. His reasons for doing that were not satisfactory and therefore we had to take disciplinary action against him,” explained Mr. Abraham Githuka who is the school’s principal.

According to the principal, the Form Two student was unwell and thus could not hold himself to stand for long during the assembly.

Mr. Githuka added that his decision was as a resolution by the school’s Board of Management (BOM) after consulting with the sub-county director of education, and decided to send the prefect home to report back with his parents on June 15 to have his case assessed and determined appropriately.

“After the suspension, the student incited his classmates. They all stormed out of classes chanting ‘No Ngwethi No School’ and walked out of school,” he said.

The principal believed that the walk out was a cover up of something else that the boys wanted to achieve.

“Other than accusing the administration of victimisation, these students have no other grievances. It seems as though they are fighting to be allowed to control the school. They want a return of the ‘powerful’ prefects they have been used to before,” said Mr. Githuka.

It was for this reason that the rest of the prefects, majority of whom are in Form Four, incited the rest of the students to walk out.

“Some of them are now coming back and we are letting them in after frisking them and talking to them at the gate," he said.

Some of the student who spoke in anonymity confided to us that the walk out had been planned earlier but backfired on Thursday only to succeed on Friday.  

“They (Form 4s) tried it out yesterday (Thursday) but failed. However, a majority of us gave in to their demands and joined in the protest march,” admitted one of the students we caught up with in Juja Town.

Some of the residents we talked to were dazed after learning that the students were on protest.

“I’ve never heard a case where Mang’u students walk out of school in protest of something. This is the first time. The administration must hastily contain the situation for the sake of the school’s name,” said Juja resident Raphael Kuria.

Mang’u High School has over 1200 students.