This archive report was first published on 3 October 2019.
Starehe Girls Centre, a national girls' high school in Kenya, has been closed indefinitely due to a mysterious disease outbreak that has left over 50 students confined to their beds and isolated from the rest.
The school was closed early this morning, with limited access only allowed to parents of students who were to go home.
According to Sister Jane Soita, the school's director, test results are expected today, and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) are analysing samples collected by doctors from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Response Department.
The school has notified parents and guardians of the affected girls, and officials from the Ministry of Education and Starehe Girls heads are currently in a crisis meeting.
However, questions abound over the release of the girls without symptoms into the general populace, with some arguing that the school should quarantine the students until it is established what the disease is.
Starehe Girls Centre was conceived as a charitable national girls' high school to cater for bright but economically and socially disadvantaged girls, and it has registered an impressive growth in the number of students pursuing university education.
The school is located in Bustani Estate at Njathaini, off Kiambu Road, and it has a staff of 40 teachers and 48 non-teaching and support staff.
Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha had to assure parents last week that schools were safe for learners, after the collapse of the Precious Talents School where seven pupils lost their lives.
Magoha maintained that students are safe in schools, but his teams have been moving around the country where a number of schools have been closed due to the unsafe nature of some of the structures.
