EXPOSED: How city school tried covering up toilet-rape teacher
Highridge Girls School in Parklands is on the spot over a cover-up plot for a teacher who allegedly raped a form one student.
The 15-year-old student was allegedly raped in a toilet by her Biology teacher, Hillary Okeyo Moses, who was on night duty on Wednesday evening last week.
The school’s administration was initially reluctant to report the incident to the police and was only forced to do so after students staged a riot and absconded classes.
According to the victim’s mother, the teacher had ordered the student to get out of class during evening preps and to go wait for him in the staff room.
GRABBED HER
“On her way to the staff room, the teacher, who was following her closely, grabbed her and pinned her on the boys’ latrine walls and raped her,” the victim’s mother narrated to Nairobi News.
She added that her daughter was then threatened by Mr Okeyo not to tell a soul what had happened.
“When she went back to class crying she told her classmates and by Thursday morning the school (head teacher) was aware of what had happened,” said the mother.
The schoolgirl was reportedly summoned by the head teacher on Friday and threatened not to tell her parents about the incident.
“It was only after other students protested and called for the arrest of the Biology teacher that the school took her (the victim) for a medical examination at Nairobi Women’s Hospital on Saturday afternoon,” the mother added.
POST EXPOSURE
The girl was given post exposure prophylaxis medication for HIV, drugs that her mother is worried might not help because they were administered a few hours past the stipulated 72 hours.
The school’s administrator went silent on the matter for the whole weekend until Monday morning when students refused to go to class after the morning assembly.
“The students stood at the assembly calling for the arrest of the teacher while chanting anti-rape slogans until police were called in to quell the chaos,” narrated the victim’s mother.
It was at that point that police arrested Mr Okeyo and had the victim record a statement at Parklands Police Station.
Police then called and notified the mother, who was away on a business trip.
The mother sent her sister to collect the girl as she started her journey back to Nairobi.
EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN
“I arrived home yesterday (Monday) in the evening and that is when I got to know all about the ordeal and now I am considering taking action against the school for the cover-up that has thrown my daughter into an emotional breakdown,” said the mother.
“She has been asking me whether she will ever get married as our religion (Islam) advocates for purity before marriage,” the mother added.
Gigiri OCPD, Vitalis Otieno confirmed the arrest of Mr Okeyo and stated that police are investigating why the matter was not reported promptly.
“We are taking the teacher for medical examination today (Tuesday) and he will be arraigned tomorrow,” said Mr Otieno.
Highridge Girls was previously a mixed school until a decision was made to turn it into a girls school. The form four class has the last group of boys.
