In the past one week, Mukumu Girls’ High School has been making headlines following the death of three students and a teacher.
The four have died in different dates in the past one week over among other complications multiple organs failure.
The latest was Juliana Mujema, a teacher from the school, who died while receiving treatment at LifeCare Specialty Hospital following a referral from Oasis Hospital in Kakamega.
This comes even as parents urge Mukumu Girls’ Board of Management to follow up on the case that has seen over 200 students admitted in different hospitals across the country.
In this article WoK looks at the school background and it’s establishment dating back to over 64 years ago.
Sacred Heart Mukumu Girls’ Secondary School is a girls’ only boarding school located in Shinyalu, Kakamega County.
The school was founded under Catholic bases in 1959 by the Ursuline Sisters – an enclosed religious order of women that branched off from the Angelines.
Angelines is a secular institute of consecrated women within the Catholic Church.
Being a public school, form one admissions are done by the Ministry of Education, and vacancies are available on competitive basis.
The school is known for its academic excellence, and it consistently ranks among the top schools in the country in national exams.
It is among the best performing schools in Kakamega County competing with among others Butere Girls’, Kakamega High School and Shikanga Boys’.
Principal
Mukumu Girls’ High School principal is Frida Ndolo.
She made headlines in earlier this month after shifting the blame to the media following the indefinite closure of the school.
A circular signed by Ndolo showed that the school was closed due to panic caused by the media, which she termed toxic.
“This is to notify you that following consultation with the Ministry of Education directors and TSC directors, it has been decided that the students break off to heal of the toxic environment already created by the media,” she wrote.
In a report in Standard, Ndolo is also said to have had an heated exchange with Basic Education PS Belio Kipsang.
Kipsang and Health CS Susan Nakhumicha had visited the school following its closure.
“Why are you on the phone? Don’t you realise we are here on an important fact-finding mission, to establish what caused the deaths of our daughters,” PS Kipsang told Ndolo.
She responded;
“I am calling the person who should be opening the food store.” The PS countered, “All along, you knew we would be visiting your school. So, why did you not plan early enough?”
As of April, Ndolo had three months to her retirement.
Deaths
The first death at Mukumu Girls’ High School was reported on April 3.
According to an autopsy exercise conducted on March 3, one of the deceased, a Form One student, succumbed to gastritis.
The pathologist who handled the case, Titus Ngulungu, said the the deceased’s stomach bled due to inflammation.
The school principal, Fridah Nodlo said Wendy Oyugi Amani passed on in Bungoma while Miriam Namajanja passed on at their home in Kakamega.
“Let us pray for our students and Mukumu community. If we take a child home for treatment, let us take them to hospital and monitor
“We have lost two students. God give us grace and wisdom to go through this trying moment,” said the principal.
Another death was reported on April 11 after a Form Four student who had been placed under ICU at Kakamega County Referral Hospital died.
She had been admitted at the hospital in earlier this month following the outbreak of a bacterial infection at the school.
The latest death was reported on April 13.
Mujema, who served as the boarding mistress and an English teacher passed on while at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The deceased exhibited symptoms similar to three students who succumbed after a disease outbreak at the institution.
She took her final bow at Lifecare Specialty Hospital in Eldoret where she had been transferred from Oasis Hospital in Kakamega following a series of tests.
County public health officials, however, ruled out Cholera after tests revealed a possibility of food poisoning.
According to a committee constituted to probe the incident, the school was using a poisonous chemical to preserve cereals and at the same time, supplemented the water supply with contaminated spring water.
