The family of the late President Daniel arap Moi will continue running Sacho High School in Baringo County as a private institution, the High Court in Nakuru has ruled.
A three-judge bench dismissed a petition filed by elders from the county seeking to change the ownership of the school from private to public.
Judges Hillary Chemtei, Teresia Matheka and Rachael Ngetich threw out the petition on grounds that the Constitutional Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter which concerned the ownership of the land on which the school is located.
“The question of land can only be determined by the Environment and Land Court. The matter requires full evidence before the court which is specialised. The manner in which the petitioners approached the court did not meet the threshold,” ruled the judges.
In the case that was filed in November 2018, the 98 petitioners, made up of elders from the Sacho division in Baringo County, moved to court to challenge what they claimed to be illegal privatisation of the school in violation of their right to education and property.
The petitioners claimed that they contributed to the construction of the school through donations and harambees convened to raise funds for the project. They said that their contribution was based on the condition that the school would be a public one to benefit local residents through access to quality yet affordable education.
They told the court that former President Moi used his powers as Head of State to illegally privatise the school, making it unaffordable for the community's children.
The court heard that community members were also denied the opportunity to work and benefit from the school's operations.
They named the school's board of governors, the Education Cabinet Secretary and the Attorney General as respondents in the case.
They sought an order declaring that their interest in and right over Sacho High School, including the land, buildings and assets, has been and continues to be infringed by the continued operation of the school by the school management.
The petitioners are also seeking an order declaring that the decision of the Cabinet Secretary for Education to revoke the original registration of the school as a public school denied their right to protection against deprivation of property.
They also want the court to issue orders compelling the management to publish the school's accounts since it was privatised and subject them to an audit, as well as appropriate damages.
In its response, however, the school's management denied the allegations and maintained its ownership of the property.
Through lawyer Steve Biko Osur, the management claimed that the school was established under a trust whose founder was the former president, the late Daniel Toroitich Moi.
Mr Biko submitted that the former president single-handedly funded the construction of the school through donations, contrary to the claim of the petitioners who claimed that the construction was funded from the proceeds of fund-raising campaigns held between 1963 and 1965.
"The former president and founder of Sacho High School made significant contributions through the school's foundation together with other partners," Biko said.
The lawyer claimed that the school was registered as a non-profit private school in 1985 and did not meet the criteria to be registered as a public institution, noting that it did not receive any grant or aid from the government, although some of its teachers were recruited from the Teachers Service Commission.
In the December 8, ruling, the court struck out the petition and granted the petitioners leave to bring the case before an appropriate court.
