Lucy Awino, 19, a student at St Mark’s Obambo Secondary School in Kisumu County, was suspended alongside her colleagues a week ago for keeping theirhair long and were ordered to go home and shave.
Awino told her father Daniel Odhiambo that they were ordered to shave after school officials claimed that keeping long hair affected the school’s performance in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and that they will not allow students to keep long hair again.
Her father said the school has insisted that Awino cut short her hair which she has kept since childhood.
‘‘The demand is unacceptable and against her wishes. Her faith does not permit her to shave,’’ said Mr Odhiambo.
The family who are members of Kenya Local Believers Church said they have made several trips to the school only to be turned away by the school administration who insisted that she returns to school only after shaving.
But later the school demanded a letter from church’s pastor.
“I took the letter to the school on Monday but nothing has since been done. The school still insists they will give a formal feedback once the Board of Governors (BOG) meets,’’ said Odhiambo.
The family are now calling on the Government to intervene saying that long stay at home would affect her performance.
The school’s head teacher Ben Nyaoro denied the girl’s suspension saying Awino requested to go home to consult her parents after the school ordered the entire school’s 288 students to go and shave.
Nyaoro insisted that school should run without external interference with rules followed to the latter.
‘‘We are a Catholic sponsored school and we want our students to follow certain rules. Initially, we allowed them to keep long hair but a few students managed to maintain them,’’ said Mr Nyaoro.
Kisumu West District Education Officer (DEO) Williams Kamuguna said long hairdoesn’t relate with performance and the girl should go back to school.
The County Director for Education Sylvester Mulambe said he has instructed the DEO and the school to re-admit the girl , adding that issues of long should not bar her from attending classes.
- The Standard
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