Kakamega School has asked the High Court to vacate orders barring it from collecting Sh21 million from parents for fire damages on a dormitory on November 6.
A parent, Boaz Vida, and the Child Care Legal Aid Clinic (Chicalac) filed an application before Justice William Musyoka challenging the decision by the Board of Management (BOM) of Kakamega School to impose the charges on parents.
Mr Vida argued that parents were not consulted before the school board went ahead to charge the levies.
However, lawyer Henry Wasilwa who represented the school, argued that the applicants had rushed to court for intervention before exhausting the laid down procedure of resolving the dispute.
The school management is seeking to have the orders vacated and the issue of Sh9,823 penalty to be paid by each student be left to the BOM to consider on a case by case basis.
Mr Wasilwa said: “The court must engage in a balancing exercise. Opening of the school without physical infrastructure will be dangerous to learners in terms of safety and hygiene. The rights of free tuition must be balanced with safety and public health issues that may arise.”
Mr Wasilwa termed the petition filed by Chicalac as applying to all schools and did not specifically apply to Kakamega School.
Petitioners’ lawyer, Oscar Munyendo, dismissed the assessment report filed by school in court, terming the document as strange.
He said part of the report contained quotations for electrical fittings for a building at Sigalagala National Polytechnic. he said the report even bore the name of the building at the polytechnic.
“The bills of quantities are collected from elsewhere and those who prepared the report even forgot to change the Sigalagala National Polytechnic name,” said Mr Munyendo.
He told the court that the decision to close down the institution was made in a rush and the school should reopen to allow learners back in class.
Lawyer Kaira Nabasenge representing Chicalac said the decision the decision to close the school was arbitrary since parents and students were not involved.
“The children have a right to free and compulsory basic education. The 2021 guidelines require that any fees charged must be approved by the Ministry of Education,” said the advocate.
He told the court that the school had not laid grounds for vacating the orders and the BOM had no authority to charge students for the damages following the fire incident at the dormitory before consulting parents on the issue.
“It is unfair for the school to send the learners back home after being served with orders when school invited the learners to report back and resume their studies,” said Mr Nabasenge.
The lobby also wants the court to determine how schools should go about charging levies for damages in the event of fires incidents and other accidents.
Mr Nabsenge said it was wrong for the school to punish students before establishing whether they were involved in the dormitory fire incident.
