A family in Mombasa is seeking justice for their 13-year-old son who was allegedly beaten and badly injured by fellow students in school.
The student is a Class 6 pupil at a boarding school in Bamburi.
He is nursing injuries at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital, where he was taken on Sunday.
According to the boy's mother Agnes, the pupil was beaten on January 23 and the school management did not disclose the incident to them.
She said on Saturday she received a phone call from a stranger who told her that her son was sick in school.
“After I received the call, I asked my daughter to go and check on his brother. But she was denied access to the school,” the mother said.
On Sunday, she received yet another call from a parent from the same school, who informed her to go and pick her child who was in a very bad condition.
At the school, she said, she found her son in pain and wounds all over his body.
She said her son was beaten for allegedly stealing chapatis from other students.
“I wish the director would have called me and told me that they are about to kill my son because of chapatis. I would have cooked more and taken them to school or even provided the necessary ingredients as a compensation,” she said.
According to her son, the director of the school is the one who started punishing him before directing other students from both primary and secondary level to beat him up.
Both his legs and hands were swollen and he could not walk or eat well.
“I could not hold my tears after seeing my son in such pain. He was in a very bad state and the school management said it was a small matter,” she said.
According to doctors at CGTRH, the boy’s left kidney was affected from the beating.
Dr Nabil Vawarni said initial examinations revealed the boy had sepsis resulting from the presence of harmful microorganism in the blood and also had an acute kidney injury.
“We are currently monitoring his urine and giving him antibiotics as we manage the infections and the wounds,” he said.
The school’s director Nancy Gachana said the student made up the story.
“The boy claims that he was beaten by the fellow students, but the incident was never reported to us. There are so many things that happen within the school, if not reported, we will not know if they ever happened,” Gachana said.
She said for a whole week, the boy has never shown any signs of being sick.
“It was not until Sunday, when the parents came to the school, that the boy said he was sick,” she said.
She however said if the boy had been beaten, it is because of his behaviour of stealing other people’s items.
“About two weeks ago, he stole two cartons of biscuits and the parents were forced to pay. Within two weeks of schools reopening, he had two indiscipline cases of theft," she said.
The boy’s father Fredrick said the matter has been reported at Kadzandani police post and the authorities are investigating.
“We hope that the police will get to the bottom of this matter to ensure justice is served. We have asked the school to pay the initial medical charges of Sh10,850 but they have refused, this means they are not ready to help,” he said.
-Edited by SKanyara