Mama Ngina Girls Secondary School shut indefinitely over arson attempt

Mama Ngina Girls Secondary School shut indefinitely over arson attempt

Mama Ngina Girls’ Secondary School has been shut down indefinitely after an attempted arson by the students at around 5 am Wednesday morning.

Mombasa County Director of Education Peter Magiri confirmed that fire broke out in one of the ablution blocks within the school compound when the girls were preparing for the morning studies.

He said all the girls, about 1,000 of them, have been sent home as they launch a further investigation into the incident.

“We have released the girls to go home due to the tension that is hereafter they attempted to burn a store in the ablution block. The decision was made due to security purposes after consultation with the school’s board,” said Magiri.

However, Magiri said there was no extensive damage at the school because the fire was noticed early enough by the girls, who helped in putting it off.

“We are not sure when the girls will be allowed to come back, because there are terms and conditions made by the board, which they will have to follow before being re-admitted,” he said.

Parents have been blamed for creating anxiety among the girls by making frequent phone calls to the school to release the girls.

“Parents have been calling asking about incidents that might have happened at the school. This has caused a lot of anxiety among the girls,” said the County Education boss.

Mama Ngina Girls Secondary School shut indefinitely over arson attempt. Photo Courtesy

He said that the security team is investigating the morning incident.

Parents have raised a concern for not being communicated to when the incident happened.

Amina Bakari, a parent of a form one student and a guardian of form three student at the school, said that she got the information from one of the aunts of her child and immediately posted on the school parents WhatsApp group, but there was no any communication from the school.

“There is no parent who would want to pay school fees and her child leaves school before the end of the term. The teachers are also straining to fit in what they lost during the pandemic, so if this is the situation and there is no communication, it is a bad thing, we need proper and official communication,” she said.

Amadi Hassan, also a parent, said that as parents they are still not aware of what happened and there is no communication from the school.

“We as parents have not received any clear clarification on what transpired, personally my girl fainted after the incident, so we are urging the school principal to talk to us so that we can find a way of helping each other,” he said.

Mama Ngina is the only girls’ national secondary school in Mombasa County. This is the first school unrest incident to be reported in Mombasa.