It makes sense for schools to have codes for uniform and grooming, but a boys’ boarding school in Kenya may be taking things too far. The Kiriani boys’ secondary in Meru, 240 kilometres north of Nairobi, sent 25 boys home because they had not been circumcised.
Many of the 14-year-olds were descended from the Luo tribe, which does not traditionally practise circumcision, and had been bullied as a result. When they complained to the head, he sent them home with a letter for their parents that said: “Your son cannot fit in school, under the condition he is in. You sneaked your son in school without reporting to us that he was not done to be like others, ie. circumcised.”
George Saitoti, Kenya’s education minister, has demanded the boys be allowed to return.