Heart-wrenching details of bullying and torture of Form One students in the country's academic giant, Alliance High School have been revealed in a shocking report compiled by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Ministry of Education officers.
The revelations indicate that prefects in the Boys’ school have been mercilessly beating the new students using hockey sticks and electricity cables, let alone slapping and forcing them to swim on the grass and lie on the graves of the school’s founders in the wee hours of the night.
What is worse, is that the school’s administration is fully aware of these shocking acts where students are seriously beaten with some being left with broken hands and legs.
A Form One student displays blood stained clothes he was in when he was beaten by prefects at the school.
According to some of the Form Ones who were probed in an investigation conducted last month, the school has “action nights” and “induction sessions” where the prefects carry out the heinous assaults.
“They step on our backs, tell us to swim on grass and then lie on graves in the school graveyard. On one night, I remember, I lay on the grave of one of the most famous principals called Carrey Francis Edward.
Another Form One narrated: “Some of the house captains told us they were our gods and that we should worship them. They told us to do impossible things — like swimming on grass or hugging light bulbs.”
The Nation reports that one of the students has been reduced to walking on crutches as a result of a severe beating.
Another student recounted how he and his classmates were chased around the school at night by prefects armed with whips and belts.
“Some of us were injured...Then early the next morning we were woken up at 3am and forced to lie on the graves,” he said.
The students disclosed to the investigators that when they report to the teachers, all the prefects got was “a mere verbal warning”.
The school principal David Kariuki applied to resign recently amid investigations into the beatings.
Mr David Kariuki.
The investigations were hastened after one of the students reported to the police of how he was mercilessly beaten at night before being rushed to Kikuyu PCEA Mission Hospital bleeding profusely.
