Kisumu Girls High School has been closed indefinitely following an increased agitation from the students that started on Friday.

The closure of the school was confirmed by Regional Education Boss Edwin Sifuna.

Sifuna said that since Friday there have been issues within the school where a number of girls were making noise and refusing to participate in the activities of the school.

He said gradually, it degenerated into shouting at any person who tried to address them.

“It worsened yesterday when the officers from the National Government administrative unit and the Ministry of Education tried to address them at the dining hall but they were very unruly,” he said.

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He added: “Eventually I was at a funeral in Funyula when I was called, I rushed to the school and addressed the students”.

He noted that the students refused to say their grievances and instead, they gave them papers where they wrote their problems and we sealed the papers.

The Education Boss told the media that he requested the students to go back to their hostels as they addressed the issues raised.

“This morning Sunday, they have woken up with increased agitations, they first went to the dining hall and wanted to play all types of music yet it’s a day to go and pray being a Sunday.”

He said that eventually there was a blackout but they interpreted it to be a targeted move to prevent them from listening to their music, they started shouting throwing papers here and there.

“The board held a meeting and in their deliberations and with the increased agitation from a number of them, it decided that to restore the order, the school closes as they look at their grievances before they are called back”.

He said the board had already started a meeting to go through all the grievances raised by the students.

The board will also talk to teachers including stakeholders to come up with a real issue that is affecting the school.

He assured that the students’ grievances among them issues of corporal punishment, will be looked at and if there is truth to some of the issues then appropriate actions will be taken.

“But other areas where maybe does not hold water, they will wait and give chance to school management where his officers are also there to analyse everything and guide on the way forward”.

Even though the school remained closed, a section of students were still at the school saying they couldn’t go back home.

Sifuna added that they have also directed the school to take care of those students who are unable to travel including those who have no interest in going home.

“By the end of today the board would have made a decision as to when they will be back,” he said.

He also noted that no property was destroyed, apart from two widow panes destroyed during the commotion.

Kisumu Boys High School is being razed down during a fierce fire inferno, which broken out at the school, damaging the pavilion section.

The fire which started a few minutes to 8 pm also gutted a temporary structure near the assembly area.

It was not immediately clear what caused the late evenings fire but security officers moved to the scene in order to secure the area which is located within the Central Business District.

Fire fighters from the Kisumu firefighting department and those from the Kisunu International Airport also arrived at the scene.

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Nyanza Regional Director of Education,Nelson Sifuna who arrived at the scene of theincident said they were trying to find the cause of the fire. No casualties resulting from the incident had been reported at presstime.

The cause of the fire and the value of the destroyed property is yet to be known.

The incident comes barely a few hours after students of neighbouring Kisumu Girls high school were sent home following unrest yesterday.

.More to follow

The more than 100-year-old Kisumu Boys High School, alongside other famous schools within Kisumu City will be demolished and moved outside the city centre

Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o has maintained his argument that the schools add no economic value yet sit on prime land at the heart of the Kisumu city.

According Nyong’o, a city is a commercial place should be run as a profit-making entity.

“Considering the value of the place, that land needs to be useful. We need to construct an integrated urban centre rather than schools,” Nyong’o said.

The governor plans to relocate Kisumu boys to a 105 acres of land parcel in Kibos area. Kisumu Girls High School, Manyatta Arabs School, the Kisumu County Referral Hospital, the main bus terminus and the Jua Kali market will also be affected.

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“Each school has a field, a swimming pool and other amenities that have occupied large parcels of land.  Why don’t we take them to an area where schools share amenities? We don’t need to have a field for each school in a town.

“Five schools can have one field because they don’t use it all the time. Students from school A can use it the morning and in the afternoon school B brings its students,” Nyong’o said.

To justify his moves, the Kisumu county boss gave an example of the Kisumu ASK grounds in Mamboleo whose land was converted to a 30,000 capacity Jomo Kenyatta International Stadium in Kisumu.

“ASK show ground is an area of about 100 acres. It used to have a show of two weeks in a year and the rest of the year the 100 acres remained idle in the centre of the city,” he said.

“And now an investor has built ultramodern convention centre and the other one has expressed interest in constructing a hotel around the stadium,” he explained.

The project dubbed “Transforming Kisumu City through enhanced urban aesthetics”, intends to revamp the city’s economy and the services by improving the city’s drainage system, establishing an integrated solid waste management system, provision of green spaces within town and improving public health and sanitation.

The Kisumu County Referral Hospital will be merged with the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital.

The plan to demolish Kisumu Boys High school has been met with resistance as former students threaten legal action against the Kisumu County Government.