• Parents of students who died after a poisoning incident at Mukumu Girls High School will receive Ksh.400, 000 each in compensation from the government
• CS Machogu told the Senate that the government will spend Ksh 1.2M to compensate parents of 3 students who perished due to food poisoning the school
• Machogu argued that so far, there is no evidence that it’s the principal that was supplying food to the school to enable them to charge her
Parents of students who died after a poisoning incident at Mukumu Girls High School will receive Ksh.400, 000 each in compensation from the government.
CS Ezekiel Machogu
This is according to Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu who told the Senate that the government will spend Ksh 1.2M to compensate parents of 3 students who perished due to food poisoning the school.
While responding to a question by Kakamega Senator Bonny Khakwale, Machogu however said after investigations, the government will not institute any criminal charges against the former school principal Fridah Ndolo or the school administration.
He told the Senators that the multi-agency team that investigated the incident found no criminal culpability on the part of the administration of the school.
“The multi-agency team has been getting two reports in a week, and as of now we have not got any report that make it culpable for us to pin down any individual particularly on the level where we think we should take anyone to court,” he said.
Machogu argued that so far, there is no evidence that it’s the principal that was supplying food to the school to enable them to charge her.
“She is due to retire in December, we gave her as we are doing investigation some soft landing at the provincial director’s office for the time being because she has 6 months to retire.”
As of May 30, 1962 students had reported at the school, 44 are yet to report while 56 have applied to be transferred from the school.
However Senators questioned why the incident occurred while the manual and guidelines were in place and what measures have been put in place to ensure that the incidences don’t occur in future.
‘’A life of a student is one too many already and it should gather the collective rage of the ministry of education and all those responsible, if those guidelines were in place what caused the breach that led to the deaths, and what measures has the ministry put in place to ensure that we don’t lose a life of any other student?’’ posed majority leader Aaron Cheruyot.
“One area that we have heard a weakness is, yes guidelines are issued, directions are issued, but then who follows to ensure they are enforced, and that is what we have corrected now and ensure that education officers are empowered to move around and enforce them,” Machogu said.
