Three schools closed over students riots in Garissa

At least three secondary schools in Garissa County have been closed in the past two days due to student unrest.

Garissa High School was closed on Tuesday after students went on a rampage, damaging property worth millions of shillings, over what they described as high-handedness by the administration.

The school administration said the students were protesting the confiscation of their mobile phones and civilian clothes, which they wear to sneak out of school.

The protests at Garissa High School led to further protests at County High School and Boystown Secondary.

At County High School, students were protesting against the mid-term exams scheduled for next week.

"Form Three and Form Four students were against the mid-term exams. They wanted to go home after news of the closure of Garissa High School reached them," said a student at the institution.

The students pelted classrooms with stones before teachers released them early Wednesday morning.

"We have released the students and expect them back on July 4. We are still assessing the damage caused," said a teacher at the school.

At Boystown, a day school, police were called in to calm the situation after students threatened to burn down the institution.

"They poured acid around the administration block where all the teachers had locked themselves fearing for their lives. We called the police after they threatened to set the block on fire," said Mr Osman Hussein, the deputy principal.

Mr Hussein said the students had taken advantage of the plan to change school uniforms to cause chaos.

"We are changing our school uniform from white shirts to yellow, but they came out shouting no yellow, when they had other motives," he said.

Mr Hussein said he was surprised to see some new faces among the protesting students.

"We had civilians joining the students in the protest and we suspect that students from Garissa High joined the protest at our school," he said.

The three schools are in the same neighbourhood, and security officials suspect that students from Garissa High are coordinating the protests.

"We have riots in schools because students are afraid to sit for exams in these institutions. They are using the change of uniform and confiscation of civilian clothes as an excuse to cause chaos," said Garissa Township Sub County Commissioner Solomon Chesut.

Mr Chesut said the administration would not be intimidated by the protests in dealing with indiscipline in schools.

"We will not allow students to come to school in civilian clothes. They have to be in uniform because that is the law. Any damage caused will be paid for by the parents," he said.

The three affected schools are the main learning institutions in Garissa Township sub-county, while Garissa High is a national school.