A Kericho High Court has issued interim orders allowing Form Four students of Litein Boys High School to sit their national exams after paying an initial Ksh10,000 to cover damages to school property.
The ruling was made on Tuesday, October 21, following three petitions issued by lawyers representing more than 2500 parents. Parents had initially moved to court to challenge the Ksh69 million damages fee, which meant every student would pay Ksh49,000, which they termed as punitive and unexplained following unrest that led to the destruction of property on September 21.
In the ruling, Justice Joseph Sergon ruled that candidates sitting the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) should be allowed back to school once they deposited a maximum fee of Ksh10,000 for damages.
"The court was receptive to our submissions urging it to issue interim measures allowing Litein students to be readmitted and given the opportunity to sit for their KCSE exams," Shadrack Wambui, a lawyer representing the parents, revealed on Tuesday.
Initially, the court had issued an interim order, requiring parents to pay an initial fee of Ksh25,000 for their children to be allowed to sit national exams.
This was after parents accused the school principal and some teachers of allegedly instigating the frequent strikes for their financial gains. Parents also raised concerns over the school's repeated decision to collect fines every time the institution witnesses unrest instead of addressing the underlying issues.
According to Danstan Omari, who is also representing parents in the case, the Ksh25,000 figure proved too hefty for a majority of parents, who were forced to sell some of their assets to accrue the figure.
On Friday, tens of students were sent home despite some of them having settled part of the Ksh25,000. This prompted parents to anonymously appeal to the lawyers to make a final submission to the court to have the figure revised.
"We have convinced the court, and the court says they only pay Ksh10,000 unconditionally, and next week, they pay Ksh5,000," Omari revealed.
The judge further allowed for more submissions by the legal counsel, with the case set for mention again later in October, where a ruling on the Ksh49,000 damages fee is set to be made.
In the best-case scenario, if the fee is found not to be viable by the court, the Litein Boys administration could be compelled to refund parents who had already made deposits.
The latest court ruling came at the eleventh hour, with the KCSE exams set to officially kick off on Wednesday, October 22.
