A sombre mood on Monday engulfed a family in Kerusoi North Sub-County, Nakuru County after the body of an eight-year-old boy was found inside an open and abandoned school pit latrine.
The body of the pupil was discovered lying inside a pit latrine in Mau Summit Primary School six days after he went missing. Samuel Mwangi went missing on October 13 after accompanying his friends to a Sunday church service at St Paul’s Catholic Church.
A frantic search for Samuel commenced after his family reported his disappearance to the area chief who promptly informed police officers at the Mau-Summit Police Station.
“We began searching for him but never found him, we looked for him all through the village, we went to the church to search for him but we were informed that the boy was never spotted at the church compound,” narrated the mother.
After several days of search, the family resorted to circulating the boy’s photos through the internet but their efforts proved futile as online scammers attempted to exploit them.
“There is a man who called us on the phone and informed us that he had successfully found Samuel and that he had been abducted but the information was not true and we continued searching for my son," narrated Mwangi's mother.
After about six days of search, it was when the grade one pupil’s body was found lying inside the open school pit latrine. The mysterious discovery raised eyebrows among villagers including Samuel's family who questioned the manner of their son's death.
Samuel's mother while expressing her outrage over the son's death, faulted the school administration for negligence by failing to cordone the abandoned pit latrine. According to the deceased's mother, her son would not have died if the open latrine had been covered.
"The latrine was a double pit latrine that had already been used, if not covered, it could turn into a mass grave for many children. The school must answer the child's death since it was an avoidable death," noted Samuel's family.
The Nakuru incident adds to the number of fatalities witnessed across various schools in the country. In an analogous incident on September 17 this year, the body of a form three student was recovered inside a school septic tank at Friends School Kamusinga in Kakamega County.
While confirming the student's death, the chairperson of the institution's Board of Management revealed the learner succumbed after falling into a septic tank which is located within the school.
The BOM chairperson, the student succumbed after being rushed to the Kimilili Sub-County Hospital. Following the incident, the are police station lodged a probe into the occurrence.
