Shanderema secondary school sign post in Mumias East/IMAGE /HILTON OTENYO 

A form three student at St Lukes Shanderema secondary school in Mumias east died on Tuesday after dropping from a speeding lorry.

The students were protesting against what they termed untimely transfer of the school principal Willy Akungwi when the accident occurred.

Jamal Barrack died on the spot after loosing grip of the metal bar he had been hanging on before dropping on the road.

Two of his colleagues who were also hanging on the rear of the lorry along the Lubinu-Shianda road sustained minor injuries during the incident.

An eye witness Boniface Okwako said the deceased was among three students who were hanging behind a speeding lorry and on reaching a bumpy area of the road near the Wanga technical, it hit a pothole and the impact loosened the grip of the students from the metal bar they were holding on and fell on the road. He died instantly.

Okwako said he was the first person to stop at the scene immediately after the accident because he was following the lorry on his motorbike.

“I decided to follow the lorry and recorded its number plate. He said that the driver of the lorry seemed to have realised that people were hanging behind the lorry and decided to speed off at once to shake them. If he was a humane person, he would have stopped and chased the students away before driving on,” he said.

They said that the principal had changed the school for the short period he had been at the school and that they will not resume classy unless his transfer is cancelled.

“We demand that the government give us reasons why the principal is being transferred after servicing for barely two years,” they said.

They said that the principal was sponsoring students who emerged in position one to three.

Education officials at the Mumias East education offices revoked the principal’s transfer before students returned to school.

The deceased’s grandmother Stella Okutoyi said his late grandson colleague was the one who reported to the family that Barrack was dead.

Grandfather Shaban Wabuko said he heard noise from the school shortly after the deceased had left the house for school.

“We later learned that there were demonstrations at the school but we did not think that the students would get that far,” he said.

Wabuko said that the late student’s father died several years ago.

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