The management at Riara Road Primary School has issued a response after an expose on the school's poor hygiene was published on this site following multiple complaints by parents and guardians.
According to one specific complaint sent to this site's chief editor by a parent, over the past two weeks, several pupils from the school have been taken ill over food poisoning with diarrhea being a common symptom among them.
Photos of the poor sanitary conditions at the school were also sent to our desk by parents who demanded that action be taken against the school's management and questions, for instance, why the school insists on outsourcing food from outside caterers, be fully answered.
Read the full story here if you haven't.
Two days after the expose, the school has now responded through text messages sent to parents. One of the parents who sought anonymity has forwarded some of the text messages to CNYAKUNDI.COM but has still expressed displeasure at how the school, in its response, has chosen to focus the fault on the children.
"Hi Cyprian, I am a Riara parent. Please hide my number for privacy. The school sent us this message but the focus seems to be that the children are at fault. Kindly look at it and help."
Here is the school's response below.
Dear Parent/Guardian, We wish to bring to your attention the following matter that was raised by some of our parents in two levels in our school. The parents raised a concern that their children were feeling unwell. As soon as we received the concerns the management of Riara immediately undertook the following steps to seek to understand if any of the concerns could be attributed to the school environment:
i) The routine water testing undertaken at the school was re-done and the report which was issued yesterday confirms that all water in RGS is safe for human consumption and commercial use.
ii) Tests on all RGS staff who are the food handlers were undertaken last week as an additional precautionary step and preliminary results indicate they have been given a clean bill of health.
iii) The school has made a consistent follow-up on the pupils reported to have been unwell within this period. We can assure you that this will continue.
iv) Organized forums to sensitize the pupils and the entire school community on the need to always observe high standards of hygiene so as to avoid contamination.
v) Thoroughly cleaned and disinfected all public areas in the school as a safety precaution.
As a school, we are committed to always ensuring and maintaining a clean and conducive environment for all. We, therefore, urge you to be assured that we will continue to make every effort to ascertain the school campuses are well maintained.
We sincerely thank you for your continued support and prompt feedback. Mrs. Mbugua, School head, Riara Primary School.