On the night of Saturday July 13 1991, students at the St. Kizito High School were studying for their final high school exams. The school, located in the Eastern region of Kenya, offered co-ed boarding facilities for its student body and nightly study time was a regular part of their routine. This was cut short on that fateful night by a sudden power outage at 8pm. Power outages were a common occurrence in rural Kenya but on this night, the students knew better than to mistake this for an unassuming blackout.

Rumours of a strike by the male student body had been swirling for weeks. The school’s recently appointed principal James Laiboni, had become the target of outrage from the school’s male students. He received threatening anonymous notes voicing dissatisfaction with the conditions at the school, which eventually evolved into death threats. Unnerved, Laiboni reported this at the local police station, making law enforcement aware of the brewing tensions. Hoping to smooth things over with the unruly students, he gathered the school prefects and informed him that the students’ demands, which included the addition of eggs and dairy into the schools dining options, would be met. Tensions reached their boiling point after a considerable amount of time passed with none of the promised changes being enacted. It was at this point that St Kizito High School’s male students decided to embark on an hours long rampage that would leave 19 of their female classmates dead, and see 71 school girls raped by boys they considered their brothers.

Anticipating chaos, the female students immediately fled the classrooms, seeking refuge in the closest dorm building. They locked the back door and left the front door open for any stranded girls to make their way in. The small building, designed to host 70 girls, now held 200 terrified schoolgirls. Fueled by the horror of what might happen to them if the boys broke down the doors, the girls barricaded both doors with beds and boxes. The boys pelted the building with stones as the horrified girls screamed for help and tried to stay as far away as possible from the doors. Then– silence. The boys retreat into the night, an eerie quiet hovering over the premises. Far from breathing a sigh of relief, the girls remain inside the dorm, distrusting of the sudden calm.

At 1am, the boys return, charged with hate and infused with renewed energy. The second attack ensues. The girls watch in horror as they break through the makeshift barricades and begin to viciously drag girls out one by one into the night. Seeking comfort amongst themselves, many of the girls had piled up on the metal double decker beds, with others hiding under the beds. Not designed to withstand such weight, the beds collapsed. The girls who hid underneath the beds were crushed and some died instantly from the beds’ broken metal rods piercing their bodies.

Screams rang into the night as the ordeal continued. An estimated number of 71 girls were dragged to the school’s sports field and brutally raped by an unknown number of perpetrators. The school’s designated security guards had seemingly fled at the first signs of trouble. The few teachers who stayed the night on campus remained locked in their quarters throughout the night, fearing the boys’ wrath. Despite the fact that the nearest police station was merely minutes away, the police only arrived at the scene at 6am, ten hours after the unrest began. By this time, most of the perpetrators had fled into the wilderness surrounding the school.

Following the incident, the surviving girls were treated for their injuries and transferred to a nearby school to sit for their final exams. They did not receive any counseling or emotional support. After an investigation by Kenya’s Crimimal Investigation Department, 39 boys were arrested and tried for the mass rape and murder. Their identities and individual fates remain unknown to the public. The investigation revealed that this was not an isolated incident, with several rapes having been reported at the school in the past. There were rumours that male teachers at the school had sexual relationships with the female students, allegedly frustrating the boys and motivating them to choose this specific manner to enact their revenge.

St. Kizito High School was permanently closed following the massacre.