A boarding school in Marsabit, Kenya:where girls live with poor hosts and boys sleep on skins

As the bell tolls at 6pm signalling the end of the learning day at El Gade primary, pupils pick their books to leave for home. Talaso Tura Diba, dressed in a pink blouse, long green skirt and a pair of sandals made from tyres, walks past the wire mesh gate. In her hand, hangs a paper bag with exercise books. Diba, 15, walks for almost one kilometre to get to her new home, which is one among few manyattas. In the manyatta, Diba sojourns with strangers. Her thirst for education saw her leave her Gocha village, over 35km away, to study at El Gade Primary located in Kalacha Location, North Horr Constituency within Marsabit County.  “I want to study hard, become a doctor and help people who are sick in our village. There are no doctors in our village,” she begins.

She continues: “My home is very far and l could not travel to and from school every day. Since there are no boarding facilities in the school, l decided to live with a stranger close to the school just to realise my dream.” Seek accommodation Head teacher Shamo Keya says the school has 255 pupils – 155 boys and 100 girls. He explains that 67 pupils – 47 boys and 20 girls – are from areas as far as 50km away and cannot make it to school every day. The school decided to seek accommodation for them within the neighbourhood. “We pleaded with neighbours to accept and host 20 girls as we look for means to keep them in school in future,” he says adding that, thankfully, they accepted. He discloses that the 47 boys temporarily slept in one of the classes until two years ago when North Horr Constituency constructed a dormitory using Constituency Development Fund (CDF) money - unfortunately, they did not provide bedding. A visit to the dormitory reveals that the 47 pupils using the boarding facility sleep on dried skins, cartons, old sacks and even paper bags.

“I wish we had a dormitory,” says Diba who is in Standard Eight. They have no light to study in the evening. They also have no stationery. The boys who sleep in the dormitory suffer a lot, especially at night because it is normally very cold. Despite the hardships, the school built in 2000 by North Horr Catholic Mission, tried its best and in last year’s KCPE exams, its top pupil Isacko Bora Afira scored 381 marks and is now admitted at Alliance High School. The last pupil had 247 marks. In 2012, the school had 28 candidates – five girls and 23 boys. Last year it had 12 candidates – nine boys and three girls. The headmaster is appealing to the Government and well wishers to help children from pastoral communities realise their dreams.