Kenyans react as Kisii school shaves hair of girls joining Form 1

A video of female students lining up to have their hair shaved during Form One admission has elicited reactions among Kenyans online.

The girls joining Kereri High School in Kisii County are expected to have clean-shaven heads and the few who might have missed the memo were seen lining up at the barber for the exercise.

At the same time, a man is heard giving guidelines on the admission process noting that the school’s policy requires all students to shave.

“Once again I welcome you to Kereri Girls. For those girls who are here for the registration process but have long hair, the school’s policy is that you must have your hair shaved.

“We have barbers at specific locations to take care of that,” the announcement sounded.

The move by the school elicited mixed reactions among Kenyans online.

@Boniface Osano on Twitter wrote: “The hate towards African hair is colonial. Sad it continues.”

Another Twitter user @Frank Jnr said: “This is so outdated we are in the 21st century they must style up.”

While @Wangeci Ndung’u wrote: “My father always said hair is like sukuma wiki itamea tu after Kukatwa should never worry you cutting it when the time comes for you to grow it will come back.”

@Baragu Wa Ndegwa said: “This is not a Kisii issue. It’s an African issue, indoctrinated to hate our hair, our colour, our languages, our culture and even our Supreme Being.”

This comes as parents continue grappling with exorbitant costs of items and levies as they take Form One students to their respective secondary schools today.

It emerged that a majority of the schools needed parents to buy the uniform from the schools, contrary to the government policy.

“We are being asked to buy uniforms at the school at Ksh25,300,” said a parent whose daughter has been admitted to a school in Nandi county.  

Another extra-county school from Kakamega county asked parents to pay Sh500 for their sons to be shaved at the school when they report today.

The fee structure seen by the People Daily required each Form One to pay the amount so that their sons could be shaved according to the institution’s specifications.

“We are required to pay the amount to the school’s account when we take the boys tomorrow (Monday, February 6),” said a parent who sought anonymity for fear of his son being victimised. 

In another bizarre case, an extra county girl’s school in Murang’a county required parents to provide their daughters with scrubbing brushes.

Costs some of the schools are asking for include money to cover creative and practical subjects, National Education Management Information System (NEMIS), students’ electronic card, ream papers, labelling, school bus, and hymn books among others.

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