Furious parents at Kamuoni Boys High School in Makueni County took to the streets on Saturday, refusing to pay a mandatory KSh20,000 restoration levy and calling for the immediate transfer of the school’s principal — a standoff that has left the institution shut and hundreds of students stuck at home.
The levy was introduced by the school’s administration and Board of Management to fund repairs after a violent eight-night student riot that erupted on May 12, tearing through the school and causing damage estimated at KSh23 million. A dormitory was torched, furniture burnt, office windows shattered, and the school kitchen severely wrecked before authorities brought the situation under control.
The school was subsequently closed indefinitely, with all students sent home as management assessed the wreckage.
But when parents were handed the KSh20,000 bill, the anger spilled outside the school gates.
“We are being forced to pay KSh20,000 each, yet the school has not clearly explained how the money will be used,” one parent told journalists gathered at the scene.
The frustration went beyond the amount itself. Parents say the numbers simply do not add up. “Even if all parents contribute the total amount, we do not know how the school arrived at those figures. We feel the process lacks transparency, and parents deserve a full breakdown before being asked to shoulder such a huge burden,” another parent said.
Chanting slogans outside the school gates, the crowd made their position clear: their children would not return to class until the administration answered their questions openly and honestly.
The levy dispute, however, is only part of a longer list of grievances. Parents also raised concerns over poor student living conditions, unexplained extra charges, declining academic performance, and deteriorating discipline — problems they say the school management has ignored for years. Many argued that the student riots were not a sudden outburst, but a predictable result of frustrations left to fester.
Their solution: new leadership. Parents are demanding the principal’s transfer, insisting it is the only way to restore stability, rebuild trust, and reverse what they describe as a sustained decline.
Makueni County leaders have urged restraint, warning that the crisis at Kamuoni Boys is not an isolated incident. The county has recorded more than five school closures due to student strikes since the term began.
“Let’s think together, let’s come together and see how we can move forward without these stoppages. We cannot continue with this vicious cycle,” a board member appealed.
The unrest mirrors scenes playing out elsewhere in Kenya. In Embu County on Friday, parents stormed St. Bakhita Siakago Girls High School to evict a principal they accused of lacking the qualifications to run a national school — padlocking her office and posting a notice reading “closed until further notice.”
With Kenya’s school calendar already strained, the growing wave of parent-administration clashes is raising urgent questions about governance, transparency, and accountability in the country’s public schools.
