Kenyan Catholic School Organizes Counseling as Students Reopen after Strange Illness

“I also proposed to have (Holy) Mass and to allow confessions for students who want the sacrament of penance,” the Kenyan Catholic Priest said.

In the October 6 meeting, the school administration had looked into medical reports of the students, Fr. Kibaki said, and added, “There is nothing to fear. The students felt pressured and what happened was their way of letting off steam.”

“Our meeting was aimed at finding out all possible sources of the pressures and looking to find solutions for them,” Fr. Kibaki said.

The member of Clergy of Kakamega Diocese said that students who had been assessed by a psychologist told the professional that they feared exams, which were set to begin on October 4, the day that many of them were admitted to hospital.

Others wanted their sports days returned after the school significantly reduced them to just once a week.

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Fr. Kibaki said that unrest such as the St. Theresa’s Eregi Girls High School incident “can happen in any community”, and that such unrest is “not isolated to Catholic schools”.

“This third term of school, four incidents of unrest have been reported in western Kenya but only one was in a Catholic School,” he further said, and added, “Catholic schools only trend in such incidents because they are the biggest in this part of the country. The bigger the institution, the more it becomes a centre of attraction. This doesn't mean that unrest is not happening in non-Catholic schools.”

Meanwhile, Fr. Kibaki has faulted parents who interrupted prayers that a Catholic Priest was leading before students as St. Theresa’s Eregi Girls High School went into a frenzy.

The parents are also said to have complained that their children were being asked to attend Holy Mass.

In the October 6 interview with ACI Africa, Fr. Kibaki cautioned the parents, as well as “a section of teachers” against inciting the children into rebelling against the rules of the Catholic school.

“The parents bring their children here knowing that this is a Catholic school with values, rules and regulations. Attending (Holy) Mass is one of the things we uphold. And the children love it. They know that we don't go out trying to convert any of them,” he said.

“The only people who are agitating against Holy mass are a group of teachers and we know it. They do this by inciting the students and the parents,” the Education Secretary in the Catholic Diocese of Kakamega told ACI Africa.

He appealed to the teachers behind the incitements to recognize the Catholic Church as the sponsor of St. Theresa’s Eregi Girls High School.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.