There was a standoff at Ober High School in Rachuonyo East sub-count, Homa Bay on Monday, March 13, 2023, after hundreds of parents held demonstrations in the institution to protest the transfer of the school’s principal.
The parents maintained that Tom Odhiambo Mboya has made major strides in boosting the school’s performance and they will not entertain any attempts to move him.
Led by former Homa Bay Member of County Assembly Ouma Odiango, the parents who were joined by the community members said the move to replace the current principal, would take back the school to the ‘dark days’ when it used to perform dismally.
Ober High School achieved a mean grade of 8.8 in the 2021/2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results, an improvement from a mean grade of 4.2 three years ago when Mboya joined the School.
Out of the 207 candidates who sat for the KCSE in the same year,198 got direct entry to university.
Mboya is supposed to be replaced by the former St. Mary’s Yala Principal Bonventure Omondi who is said to have been moved due to poor performance.
As a community, we demand that the decision by the TSC to replace the current Principal of Ober be reverted with immediate effect,” the former MCA said.
“Since Mboya joined this school, we have witnessed improved performance as well as infrastructure development. We will not allow any principal to set foot in this school. Let him be taken to other schools but not Ober,” Odiango said.
According to Odiango, the incoming principal had cancelled his transfer to another school before the parents and students held a demonstration over poor performance. Thereafter, a decision was allegedly made to post him to Ober High.
“Our School is not a dumping site. We have reached at a level where we will not allow any principal who has been chased away due to poor performance to head our school,” Agnes Atieno, a parent at the school, said.
According to Caleb Oyiecho, one of the school’s Board members, nobody has ever raised any complaint regarding the leadership of the principal, noting that he has only served in the school for less than three years.
“No teacher, parent, board member or anyone has ever raised any complaint about the current principal which might be worth his transfer,” Oyiecho remarked.
Mboya has been transferred to Ugenya Girls High School in Siaya County. He is, however, yet to report to his new workstation.
“The principal is going nowhere. Let TSC move the other principal to another place because we will not allow him to set foot in this school,” he added.
