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- NAIROBI, Kenya (PANA) - Two
secondary schools in Kenya's Central province have been closed and students
sent home following alleged invasion by ghosts, the Daily Nation has reported.
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- It indicated that ghosts allegedly invaded Gitogo Mixed
Secondary School, about 120 miles north west of Nairobi Thursday night
and first targeted boys, who were thoroughly beaten by the ghosts, causing
a stampede. The school was closed Friday.
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- The area police chief, Michael Muthike, said the mixed
school had been closed indefinitely.
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- He could not, however, confirm or deny whether there
were ghosts in the school.
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- "As for that (the presence of ghosts) I cannot comment
authoritatively because I am not well versed in ghost matters," he
said.
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- Muthike added the ghosts then invaded the girls' dormitory
Friday night, showering the roof with a hail of stones. The girls, too,
were sent home Saturday.
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- The school was completely deserted Tuesday when PANA
visited the scene as the teachers were also said to have taken off in fear
of being attacked.
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- In Lari division, less than 30 miles from Nairobi, more
than 300 students of Kambaa Girls High School were sent home Sunday after
an alleged attack by ghosts.
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- The students claimed that a senior member of the staff
was linked to the evil spirits.
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- Claims of alleged invasion by ghosts is increasingly
becoming a daily story in Kenyan schools, and religious leaders have taken
a wide berth on the issue.
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- Already debilitated by an overloaded curriculum, schools
in the country are perpetually living in fear of possible ghost attacks.
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- The most affected are boarding schools located in the
countryside.
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- However, the authorities seem to have been caught unawares
by the phenomenon.
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- On 3 July, students from Wang'uru Girls Secondary School,
Kirinyaga district (113 miles north-west of Nairobi), stormed the office
of the Central Provincial director of education protesting an alleged invasion
of their school by ghosts.
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- The students said they were terrified by the alleged
demons, which they claimed appeared in form of white cats and black snakes.
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- They further claimed the creatures, which run around
their dormitories, had been introduced by their head-teacher.
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- Earlier in June, the member of parliament for Kandara
constituency, Stephen Ndicho, asked the education ministry to resolve a
long running dispute at Gathigi Primary school in Maragua District (about
35 miles north of Nairobi) where parents withdrew their children alleging
the school had been invaded by ghosts.
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- Angry parents had stormed the school and took away their
children for fear that they might be attacked by demons.
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- The parents accused the head-teacher, his deputy, and
an assistant teacher of being behind the school's invasion by evil spirits.
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- On 26 May, two pupils collapsed during a cleansing ceremony
to rid the same school of an alleged ghost invasion.
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- The ceremony, conducted by Rev. Fr Elias Murithi of Gachanjoni
Parish, ended in disarray when parents of the collapsed pupils attacked
the gathering.
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- The pupils, however, regained consciousness.
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- On 18 May, the Daily Nation carried a report saying a
primary school in Kitui district, about 200 miles east of Nairobi, closed
and more than 400 pupils sent home following alleged invasion by ghosts.
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- A school committee official was accused of having sent
the ghosts.
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- Also in Kitui, pupils of Kathuma Primary School were
sent home after demons allegedly invaded the school. The demons were said
to have been strangling the helpless youngsters.
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- The parents and school committee consequently raised
funds to hire a witchdoctor from the port town of Mombasa to exorcise the
demons.
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- On 4 July 1999, Muthetheni Girls School in Machakos,
about 60 miles east of Nairobi, closed after girls claimed attacks by unknown
forces.
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- The girls said demons invaded their St. Theresa dormitory
and allegedly raped and beat them up.
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- Education officials and the government are currently
grappling with the problem. However, they are undecided on whether to employ
the services of a ghost buster or just dismiss the claims as wild imaginations.
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- "An ominous sub-culture has crept in most secondary
schools and this has put our nation's future at stake," Samuel Kariuki,
a senior inspector of schools, said.
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- He added that the other members of this sub-culture are
the touts (known for their rough mannerisms) and school drop-outs.
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- He claimed that the sub-culture is increasingly growing
into a cult that would idolise rock musicians and confessed drug abusers.
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- Kenya's education minister, Kalonzo Musyoka, has dismissed
claims of ghost invasion as fertile but dangerous imagination.
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- He blamed everything on the rise in drug use among school-going
children, saying all the claims about ghost invasion is fantasy by drugged
children.
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- Kalonzo also attributed the school closures to delinquency
among students, saying if the students were more disciplined, there could
be less interruptions in their study.
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- He called on parents to bring up their children well
to make them responsible citizens.
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- However, the minister feels that there are some elements
of witchcraft among the people and he cannot rule out the possibility of
some wicked people trying to disrupt the normal running of schools.
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- He said the only solution to the problem could be to
go to church and believe in God.
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- But there are also senior members of the society who
believe in witchcraft and ghosts.
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- For instance, legislator Jembe Mwakalu, a man who at
one time went public to claim that somebody had bewitched him, says the
ghost invasions are real and Kenyans have to protect themselves against
them by wearing protective charms.
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- Ann Wanjiku Ngatia, a 17-year-old student, who was sent
away from school in October and missed her exams after having been accused
of devil worshipping, believes devils are real and they normally like attacking
a group of children, especially in a school dormitory.
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- But while claims of ghost attacks abound, ghost busters,
fetched from as far as Vanga (120 miles south of Mombasa on the Kenyan-Tanzania
border) and Tanga in Tanzania, are making a kill as they are called in
daily by desperate clients to defray the effects of the demon attacks.
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