Kereri High School in Kisii County ushered their 2023 form one students cohort with a clean shave.
In a video doing rounds on social media, students were seen lined up while a barber cleanly shaved their heads.
A periodic announcement is heard during the admission process that it was the school's policy to have students shaved.
“Once again I welcome you to Kereri girls, those girls who are here for the registration process but have long hair, the school's policy is that you must have your hair shaved. We have barbers at specific locations to take care of that,” the announcement sounded.
The video elicited mixed reactions from parents with the majority wondering why it was necessary to shave the students while others supported it as part of high school life.
A user by the name of Amos Okinyi questioned the policy.
"Primitive, retrogressive and uncouth conduct towards our sisters. Very unfortunate that the school can take such a direction," he complained.
Willie Ngugi was equally perturbed by the exercise,
"These are some of the colonial policies that should be done away with. The trauma we put our kids through in the name of Education is just insane," he lamented.
Dominic Ntangari differed with most of the parents revealing that:
"Short hair is part of the uniform, it is not about if you can afford to maintain your preferred hairstyle or not. If you question it, then why don't you prepare a preferred breakfast for your son in boarding school every morning? Homeschooling is a free choice," he put across.
Maina Wa Kinyua too supported the exercise:
"When our ladies go to the Arab/Muslim world, they all have to wear hijabs and their long attire. No one says it’s barbaric. When they report to a learning institution that has a tradition of girls having only short hair (which is typically African hair), scores of people scream it’s backward. Am now waiting to hear you scream about boys wearing shorts at Alliance, Starehe or Kabarak rather than trousers like other schools," he remarked.
The exercise at Kereri Girls High School also provided an opportunity for business people to cash in.
Among those handling the shaving was a university student from Kisii University who revealed that he was there to shave the students as a side hustle.
“We have a shaving service here as a side hustle to earn some coins for our stay on the campus. I charge Ksh 50 for every student I shave. The exercise has been good so far,” he disclosed.
Form one admission began on Monday, February 6 and is expected to last for week, as parents and learners troop to their respective schools across the country.
The Government is pushing for a hundred per cent transition of all learners who sat for their KCPE exams having placed all the 1.2 million in secondary schools regardless of the marks they scored.
