“We will not wait for anoth­er tragedy to act.” These are not my words — they are a pow­er­ful dec­la­ra­tion from the Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion that enough is enough. By clos­ing 348 non-com­pli­ant board­ing schools, rep­re­sent­ing about 1% of Kenya’s pri­ma­ry insti­tu­tions, the min­istry has drawn a bold line, pri­or­i­tiz­ing child safe­ty above all. For too long, pre­ventable tragedies like fires and col­laps­ing build­ings have left fam­i­lies shat­tered and the nation demand­ing account­abil­i­ty. This time, pre­ven­tion has tak­en cen­ter stage, and hate them or like them, the min­istry deserves praise for pro­tect­ing the lives of our most vulnerable.

I was shocked to read the Min­istry of Education’s audit con­duct­ed in Sep­tem­ber and Octo­ber 2024, which revealed alarm­ing safe­ty vio­la­tions in these schools. Struc­tur­al fail­ures, inse­cure facil­i­ties, and neglect of basic safe­ty guide­lines cre­at­ed tick­ing time bombs for inno­cent chil­dren. Past inac­tion on such find­ings has cost lives and caused unimag­in­able pain for fam­i­lies. By shut­ting down these schools, the Min­istry has declared that child safe­ty is non-negotiable.

How­ev­er, respon­si­bil­i­ty does not rest with the gov­ern­ment alone. Par­ents must care­ful­ly eval­u­ate the schools to which they entrust their chil­dren, par­tic­u­lar­ly board­ing schools, which often lack the nur­tur­ing envi­ron­ment young learn­ers need. A study pub­lished in the Jour­nal of Child Psy­chol­o­gy and Psy­chi­a­try found that pro­longed par­ent-child sep­a­ra­tion was linked to increased emo­tion­al and behav­ioral prob­lems in teenagers, par­tic­u­lar­ly when the sep­a­ra­tion occurred dur­ing key devel­op­men­tal years, which can dis­rupt their abil­i­ty to form healthy rela­tion­ships lat­er in life. This under­scores the vital role of parental sup­port dur­ing adolescence.

Mean­while, schools them­selves must stop pri­or­i­tiz­ing prof­it over safe­ty. Divert­ing funds meant for infra­struc­ture and devel­op­ment or cut­ting short­cuts in com­pli­ance to present a cheap­er option to gullible par­ents fac­ing eco­nom­ic chal­lenges is not only uneth­i­cal but crim­i­nal. This behav­ior has direct­ly con­tributed to the appalling con­di­tions cit­ed in the ministry’s audit, which include crum­bling class­rooms, dilap­i­dat­ed dor­mi­to­ries, and unse­cured premis­es. This moment should serve as a wake-up call for all school admin­is­tra­tors that the era of impuni­ty is over. Cut­ting cor­ners is no longer acceptable.

Equal­ly trou­bling is the polit­i­cal inter­fer­ence in mat­ters of school safe­ty. Shield­ing non-com­pli­ant schools for per­son­al or polit­i­cal gain endan­gers lives and must stop. Children’s safe­ty is non-nego­tiable, and the ministry’s firm stand deserves applause. Politi­ciz­ing this issue is unacceptable.

Look­ing ahead, let’s focus on three key issues. First, trans­par­ent use of funds is imper­a­tive, with strin­gent over­sight mech­a­nisms to pre­vent mis­man­age­ment. Par­ents must demand account­abil­i­ty from school boards and active­ly par­tic­i­pate in school man­age­ment. A vig­i­lant par­ent body can ensure that schools remain focused on their core mis­sion of pro­vid­ing a safe and nur­tur­ing learn­ing environment.

Sec­ond­ly, inspec­tions should become manda­to­ry, with imme­di­ate action tak­en against non-com­pli­ance. All schools that fail to meet basic safe­ty stan­dards should be shut down with­out hes­i­ta­tion. In addi­tion, there must be a shift in how board­ing schools are used. These insti­tu­tions should cater to old­er chil­dren who are more capa­ble of man­ag­ing the social and emo­tion­al chal­lenges of board­ing life. Incen­tiviz­ing qual­i­ty day schools clos­er to com­mu­ni­ties could reduce the reliance on board­ing insti­tu­tions for young learners.

Third­ly, a nation­al pub­lic aware­ness cam­paign is need­ed to edu­cate com­mu­ni­ties on the impor­tance of adher­ing to safe­ty reg­u­la­tions. Par­ents, edu­ca­tors, and school own­ers must all under­stand that com­pli­ance with safe­ty stan­dards is not an incon­ve­nience but a moral oblig­a­tion. A well-informed pub­lic will bet­ter appre­ci­ate these mea­sures and hold stake­hold­ers account­able for their roles.

The clo­sure of these schools is a tough but nec­es­sary step. With over 14 mil­lion chil­dren enrolled in pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools in Kenya, their safe­ty and future are respon­si­bil­i­ties we must not take light­ly. Like nur­tur­ing a young tree to grow strong and bear fruit, safe­guard­ing our chil­dren requires care, sac­ri­fice, and unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment for their sake and for God’s glo­ry. The Ministry’s bold action sets a stan­dard by pri­or­i­tiz­ing safe­ty over pol­i­tics, con­ve­nience, or prof­it — let’s unite to pro­tect our great­est trea­sure, our chil­dren. Think green, act green!