Return of turmoil at
Machakos School
By Nitram Iedn
MACHAKOS School was temporarily closed town forcing the more than 200 KCSE candidates to take their papers from outside the school.
It is probably the first time in the history of the school founded in 1950 that an examination class is send home during examinations.
The closure also affected over 600 students in Forms One to Three who had to go home and report after the Form Four Class had left, underlining some rare loathing that is yet to be analyzed and categorized
The candidates were ordered out of the school after a meeting chaired by Machakos DEO Mr.Richard Midambo following disturbances that saw windowpanes at the Assembly Hall broken by riotous boys whose grievances were not understandable, an act the hints at raw carnage in school.
Police recovered a toy pistol, machetes and rubber whips from the fourth formers.
Midambo said the rest of the students in forms One, Two and Three were sent home until last batch of the candidates with sit for their last paper and leave the school.
The return of turmoil to Machakos School is an imperfection to a peaceful stint enjoyed at the School.It is an incident that took many by surprise, given that the School enjoyed a peaceful year since the posting of Mr Masaku Muiya as Chief Principal to lead the institution.
After the turmoil begun, the Form Four boys were escorted back to the school under tight security to go and sit for the remaining examination paper the next day.
Acting OCPD P.N.Wambugu confirmed the toy pistol and the whips were found in a bag inside the dinning hall after smoking the students out.
“It is difficult to establish the owner of the bag now but we have launched investigations into the incident”,he said.
“There were no grievances from the form four students. They only wanted to protect the bad things they intended to do”,he said.
Eye witnesses said some of the form four students were spotted in Machakos town during the day and were heard singing solidarity songs in readiness for mayhem. Nevertheless, hundreds of students from the other classes streamed out of the school that evening to avoid being harmed by the Form Fours.
They spend the night in unknown places in Machakos Town where they were seen loitering, dressed in school uniform, T- Shirts, some carrying books in their hands.
Sources indicated that the decision to send the boys home and scatter the form fours was reached at the advise of the District Security Committee after it analysed evidence and arsenal found with the Form Four class, “ They seem to have a mission unaccomplished and we will not avail them the opportunity to cause mayhem in the school” said a security source.
It is also clear that the security team assessed the situation and concluded they could not guarantee security for the students given the prevailing circumstances.
The form four students spent the night in the cold outside the local DCs offices under armed guard after the police herded them there following the aborted riots.
