Ebbie’s mother appeals to Uhuru for justice, three years on

Chants. Wails. Screams. With placards raised high in the air, dozens of demonstrators walk from Jeevanjee Gardens to the Office of the President on Harambee Avenue, Nairobi.

At one point they sit down on Taifa Road, near Jogoo House. They stand, then kneel down facing the sky, the warbles rising spontaneously. “Justice for Ebbie, justice delayed is justice denied,” the crowd shout in unison.

We are walking alongside Martha Wanjiro, the mother of the late Ebbie Noelle, who died at her school in March 2019.

Tears of agony roll down Martha’s cheeks, the pain of losing her daughter clearly written all over her face and the anguish of the reality of knowing she will never see her firstborn child again covering her in a cloud of desolation.

Accompanied by family, friends, Ebbie’s primary school teachers and parents, she endured the long march, which seeks to see if justice can be found for her child three years later.  

“Three years is too long. We need to be protected,” the marchers chant as vehicles slow down to give way.

Angered by the delayed investigations, Martha revealed that she was tired of being psychologically manipulated by officials at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

Tweets won’t help in any way

Speaking at the Office of the President, Martha said her only plea was for the DCI to arrest her child’s killers, saying tweets won’t help in any way.

“They (DCI) tweeted last night that a senior administrator at the school actually assaulted my child and have not made any arrests, just tweets,” she said.

Ebbie was then 15 years old and enrolled in Form One at Gatanga Girls CCM Secondary School, which is now called St Anuarite Gatanga Girls School. She met her death under mysterious circumstances on the night of March 8-9, 2019.

“I received a call from the principal and her deputy informing me that my daughter was unwell and had been rushed to Naidu Hospital in Thika town. I was urged to report there and not come alone,” Martha recounts.

Ebbie, on the fateful night and barely two weeks in school after reporting from the midterm break, had been assaulted by a senior member of the school’s administration on allegations that her hair had been styled contrary to school regulations.

Minutes before the 9pm

This happened during evening preps, minutes before the 9pm bedtime bell rang. Ebbie retired to bed that night with severe injuries and that was the last time her friends saw her alive.

“The principal, Ms Veronica Wanjiku Mwangi, insisted that my daughter had failed to wake up that morning and that she had died on her way to the hospital,” Martha said.

“However, doctors at the hospital reported that they had received a dead body that had been deceased for some time.”

Government pathologist

An autopsy conducted by a government pathologist confirmed that Ebbie died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.

Still pained by Ebbie’s death, Susan Gatere, her primary school teacher, recalls her as a cheerful soul, a happy girl who was all smiles.

“Getting to hear of her passing really breaks my heart. Such confident students brought up in a very good environment have no place in our secondary schools. Personally, as a parent, I am afraid to take my child to a boarding school.”

Asking that school administrators be put on trial, Susan said teachers who are entrusted with supervising children separate their emotions from their work.

Zola Sunshine, a mother who was part of the protest, complained that government officials had not followed up on the promise to bring Ebbie’s killers to justice.

“Ebbie should have been 18 years old this year. She has been robbed of a lot. It is not right,” she lamented.