Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Another pupil commits suicide



By Vincent Mabatuk

A sombre mood engulfed Kiamunyeki village in Nakuru County as another pupil committed suicide after being forced to repeat class.
The 14-year-old boy ended his life by hanging himself using a sisal rope inside his parent’s two-bedroom house on Monday evening.
The class six pupil at Rurii Primary school, Tony Muiya, according to his mother ended his life after he was forced to repeat by the class teacher after scoring 218 marks last year.
The boy’s family said when school re-opened last week he refused to attend the classes fearing to be taken back to class six but after discussing it with his father he agreed to report to school on Thursday but never reached the school.
His mother, Anne Makobe, in the company of two other boys, later traced him to a friend’s home.
The three boys said they had decided to travel on foot to Nairobi where they were to transform as street boys.
"They told us that we were lucky because they had already left for Nairobi but returned to collect drinking water", said the mother.
With tears, the mother said a neighbour’s child had informed her that the boy had two sachets of rat poison but Tony had denied the claims.
After intercepting him, the mother took him to school and pleaded with the deputy Head teacher to allow them see the Headmaster on Monday, which he accepted.
She claimed that while queuing alongside other parents waiting for their turn to see the Headmaster, the class teacher pulled them out and asked her not to waste her time.
The disturbed mother said the teacher told the boy to go back to his previous class or leave the school.
Unhappy about the turn of events the boy after going home locked himself in his room and slept and that was the last time his parents saw him alive.
His younger sister stumbled on his lifeless body as she came back from school in the evening.
His father David Mwaniki blamed the death of his first-born son on the class teacher.
However, when contacted the Headmaster Samuel Karanja denied any orders directing the boy to repeat saying no pupil had been forced to repeat.
The distraught parents are now requesting for tough measures against teachers forcing children to repeat against their wishes and in contravention of a directive by Education Minister Sam Ongeri.

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