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Form Four students miss out on learning at Jamhuri High School following plastic seats standoff
Jamhuri High School officials addressing the students at the assembly moments before the school was closed until Monday next week on January 24, 2018 following alleged religious animosity among the students which led to fighting and a number of students were injured in the process.
What you need to know:
- Upon reporting back for Term Two, the students were instructed to clear outstanding school fees and purchase 10 plastic seats.
- School principal Duncan Juma has dismissed the claims saying no parent has been asked to pay any remedial fee or buy plastic seats.
Concern is mounting over the fate of a section of Form Four students at Jamhuri High School who have been locked out of school as punishment for breaking school rules.
The 27 students are reported to have forced their way out of the school in protest against a decision by the administration to keep them within the school premises even as lower classes were allowed to leave for the April holidays.
Upon reporting back for Term Two, the students, accompanied by their parents, were turned away and instructed to clear outstanding school fees in full and purchase 10 plastic seats as punishment for indiscipline.
“My son has just been idling at home despite being a candidate as I am financially strained and cannot afford the seats the school is demanding for that range between Sh1,000 and Sh1,300,” said a parent.
The parents maintain that the students did not destroy any school property during the walkout, which they say was triggered by growing frustration over extended learning schedules and what the learners described as intense academic pressure.
Parents said the candidates had been compelled to remain in school for an extra week even after lower classes had closed for the April holiday for revision purposes.
“We were asked to pay Sh1,500 for the remedial classes during their one week stay in school even when it is clear that it is an illegal levy,” said another parent.
A section of Jamhuri High School in Nairobi.
School principal Duncan Juma has dismissed the claims saying that no parent has been asked to pay any remedial fee or buy plastic seats as punishment.
“Some 27 of the 300 Form Four students left on the March 28 which was against the school rules and those ones were to come for disciplinary action and nobody asked their parents for money because it was within the school term nor plastic seats,” said Mr Juma.
The official closing day for Term One was April 2 and the opening day April 28 2026.
He said a meeting was held with parents of the students accused of indiscipline, during which they were reminded of the school rules on sneaking out, adding that the only punishment imposed was a requirement for the learners to pay full school fees for the term.
“You will realise that most of those indiscipline boys are the ones with fees problems. There is one that owes the school Sh105,000 while the school fees here is Sh53,000. Fees must be paid because there are running costs that must be met,” said Mr Juma.
The parents have since shared photographs showing piles of plastic seats reportedly stored within the school compound, insisting the chairs were indeed delivered by parents as instructed.
Indiscipline and unrest cases that have previously been reported at Jamhuri High School including last year when a school dormitory was set ablaze.
In 2018, the school was closed indefinitely following a fight among students that left seven of them with serious injuries.
In 2021, a fire incident at the school razed a 300-capacity dormitory, with no injuries reported and the cause remaining unknown. The incident occurred during a period marked by a wave of similar fires in secondary schools across the country.
The 2026 KCSE exams are scheduled to begin with practical and oral assessments on October 19, 2026, according to the official KNEC timetable.
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