•Form one students will be the first lot to report back on November 22.
•Form fours will report the following day on November 23 , while form two and three students are expected back on November 24 and 25 , respectively.
Image: DICKENS WASONGA
Each of the 2,469 students at Maranda High School will pay Sh2,500 as cost for the reconstruction of the burnt down dormitory, school authority has said.
Each student will also report back to school accompanied by a parent or guardian.
According to the communication sent to parents on Monday, the decision was made following a board meeting held on November 11.
Form one students will be the first lot to report back on November 22.
Form fours will report the following day on November 23 , while form two and three students are expected back on November 24 and 25 , respectively.
The Star established that the school will provide a mattress, two blankets, two bed sheets, and one bedcover to 178 students whose items were burnt in the fire.
The resolutions of the board of management of the school was communicated to the parents and gurdians by the Principal Maranda High School , Edwin Namachanja.
On Friday, a Bondo Court directed the police to release six students arrested last Monday over arson in the school.
The students who were being held at Bondo police station were arraigned last Friday.
Bondo Resident Magistrate Stella Mathenge directed the police to release the students immediately.
The students had earlier been detained for 14 days.
However, the magistrate ordered their release on a free bond.
This followed a successful application for review of the detention order by the accused persons lawyer, Felix Oketch.Oketch successfully argued that the continued detention of the students without a formal charge was a violation of their fundamental right to liberty.
The advocate stated that article 53 of the constitution of Kenya provides for the detention of children/juveniles only as a measure of last resort.
Mathenge equally ordered the accused to appear before the DCI whenever they are needed.
The case will be mentioned on November 23 , 2021.
Maranda High School was closed indefinitely on Monday last week following a fire that gutted down a dormitory.
Siaya county director of education Nelson Sifuna said the decision to close down the school was reached after a board meeting.
" The board arrived at the decision to give the school management time to reconstruct the 200-bed capacity dormitory that was destroyed by the fire," Sifuna said.
He called for calm among all stakeholders.
"The students will soon be recalled once proper mechanisms have been put in place," Sifuna said.
He said that the value of the damage to the building was yet to established and therefore the amount that each student will be expected to pay could not immediately be determined.
The 10.20 pm inferno destroyed a 200 capacity dormitory at the school, used mainly by the form four students.
" The principal made a telephone call to inform the police that one of the dormitories identified as Ogango A, which accommodates 200 students was on fire," Bondo OCPD Roseline Mnyolmo said.
With the help of the firefighters from Siaya county government, the fire was contained.
" The dormitory was completely burnt down, together with the students' personal belongings whose value is yet to be determined," she said.
No injury was reported according to the police. The OCPD said the cause of the fire wasn't immediately established.