The Kenya High School is a public girls' high school located on Mandera Road in the upmarket Kileleshwa Ward and suburb of Dagoretti North Sub-County in Kenya's capital city, Nairobi.
The school, which follows the national curriculum, is one of Kenya's 112 national schools and also one of the 18 prestigious Cluster III secondary schools. Located on a 150-acre campus some six Km from the Central Business District, the institution caters for 1700+ students who attend Forms 1-4 (= US grades 9-12) in seven to nine streams, at the end of which the students sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.
It is primarily a boarding school and accepts day-scholars on a case-by-case basis.
The Kenya High School consistently performs well in national secondary exams, and has enforced a proper code of conduct to be followed by all.
Background and history.
Christian missions were the original providers of institutionalised education for African children in the East Africa Protectorate. Their stated purpose was to “civilise and convert the African”. They also set up teacher training college-type institutions whose graduates went back to their villages as “evangelists” to “break the yoke of primitivity and usher in civilisation”.
Formal institutional education via the colonial government began in October 1904, with the appointment of Mr Alfred John Turner, of the Indian Educational Department, as Headmaster of the Railway School, Nairobi, which served the families of the I.B.E.A. Company. At that time there were few Europeans in the country, and formal education was only required for the children of European, Eurasian and Indian employees on the Uganda Railway.
The Railway School was taken over by the government in 1908. In 1910, the Board of Education proceeded to separate the provision for European, Indian, Arab and African education, and a separate European School was founded under Mr Turner's headmastership, "The European School, Nairobi" (also cited as Nairobi European School). This co-education primary school marks the beginnings of Nairobi Primary School, The Kenya High School and Nairobi School formerly known as the Prince of Wales School. 1910 is considered the birth year of present-day The Kenya High School.
The school opened with 110 children and gradually increased the number until it obtained its maximum of about 250 children in 1918. It started in buildings on the former Police Barracks adjacent to Government House on Nairobi Hill, which is the location of the present-day Nairobi Primary School. About 130 boarders were accommodated in new buildings of timber and iron sheets two miles away, by the old Buller's camp next to Nairobi Club. By this time (1920) present Kenya had been transformed into The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, a British Crown Colony. The school's shield-and-lion crest was designed for the co-educational Nairobi European School in July 1926 by Mr. Michael William Alfred Berkley (born 9 April 1986 in Linton, Herefordshire, UK; died 5 September 1931 at Rua Ngonde Estate, Maragua). In keeping with the colonial government's then commitment to improving institutional education (for Europeans) in Kenya, of land on the Hill were allocated for new buildings. The architect, Sir Herbert Baker, drew up the design, and in 1928 a fine set of spacious new buildings was ready for occupation.
In 1930, when the colonial government initiated the classification of secondary schools, the European School Nairobi was the only one accorded this status in the whole country, while the rest of the schools remained primary and feeder schools. It was then that the genders were separated, and the secondary girls moved to the upper floor of the school, while using Pillared Hall for assembly. The headmaster, Captain Bertram William Lothian Nicholson, is credited as the originator of the girls' schools' motto, "Servire Est Regnare" (To Serve Is To Reign). Lenana School (established in 1949 as the Duke of York School) also credits its existence to the European School Nairobi, which was its feeder school.
In 1931 the boys' secondary school was moved to a 600-acre allotment in the Kabete area (along Sclater's Road, today's Waiyaki Way), leaving the girls behind with the primary school pupils. The original idea for the name of the boys' school was Kabete Boys Secondary School, but the first headmaster, Captain Bertram W. L. Nicholson, thought this to be too clumsy and therefore the name Prince of Wales School (now Nairobi School) was suggested and eventually adopted.
The first Headmistress of the girls' school, Miss G. H. Kerby, was appointed in 1931 (serving until 1941), and in 1935 the school was renamed "The European Girls' Secondary School". The current name, "The Kenya High School" was officially registered in 1938. In 1951 - while Miss J. Stott was Principal (1942-1963) - the school moved to new buildings in Kileleshwa, which had been constructed at an (for that time) astronomical cost of £700,000 (excluding the chapel, pool and library) through Miss Kerby's connection to colonial administrators. The school was modelled on the English public school and grammar school tradition.
A breakthrough was made in 1961 when the school (until then an exclusive European preserve) admitted two ethnic African and two ethnic Indian girls. The first ethnic African girls were Ann Wachira (née Mithamo) and Dr. Eunice Githinji (née Wagga), who were both Science students. Eunice joined "Boma" from Alliance Girls High School for her A-levels (Form 5 and Form 6). Segregation was declared illegal on 1 June 1963, and the Kenyanisation of schools began in earnest after 1965 when the government set out nine objectives for education in Kenya. These included fostering a sense of nationhood and promoting national unity and serving all Kenyans without discrimination. This time also saw the admission of 120 ethnic African and 100 ethnic Indian girls. History was also made that year when the school selected the first ethnic African Deputy Headgirl, Hon. Ruth Waruhiu (née Githu).
It was during this Kenyanisation phase, with Miss A. A. Levers' as Principal (tenure: 1963 - 1967), that Dr. Pamela Ogot Kola joined the faculty on 1 May 1965 as the first ethnic African teacher, teaching English literature. Hon. Winifred Nyiva Mwendwa, who taught Domestic Science, was also employed at around this time.
Miss V. M. Barnes became Principal during a period of transition (serving 1968-1976). In 1974 the school was officially taken over by the government and it began to admit more African pupils and teachers. The first ethnic African Headmistress, Mrs Rose Kariuki, served from January to July 1977, then handed over to Mrs. Margaret Wanjohi. Mrs. Wanjohi went on to lead the school until 1999, when she moved as Director of Starehe Girls' Centre, having been the longest-serving Principal at The Kenya High School. It was during Mrs Wanjohi's tenure that she was also promoted as the first female Principal of a Kenyan institution. Following the establishment of three Secondary School Principals’ grades in the 2018 Career Progression Guidelines by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the school's first headteacher to acquire the title of "Chief Principal" was Mrs Flora Mulatya.
As part of "The Three", The Kenya High School is one of the oldest schools of the former East Africa Protectorate government's European Secondary Boarding Schools, coupled with Nairobi School (formerly Prince of Wales School) and Lenana School (formerly Duke of York School). Nairobi School has always been referred to as The Kenya High School's "brother school", as the two schools have maintained a cordial rapport over the years by inviting each other to their school events and sports galas. The Kenya High School also enjoys a similar historical relationship with Lenana School.
All three schools still retain some English traditions handed down from the colonial settler era.
Admission and performance.
As a national school, The Kenya High School admits girls from across Kenya's 47 counties who have performed exceptionally well in the national Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination.
Annual enrolment has steadily increased over the years, from around 700 in the late 1980s/early 1990s to over 1700 as of 2023. The high numbers are a result of Kenya adopting the Policy on Universal Access to Basic Education, which seeks to ensure that all children enrol in primary school and complete their secondary school education with a 100% transition rate.
The Kenya High School has severally produced the top performing girl nationwide in KCSE:
As one of the best public schools in the country, The Kenya High School consistently posts excellent results, often topping the national list of over 10,000 secondary schools:
Houses.
There are ten boarding houses which were originally named after notable women in European history and are now mostly named after Kenyan geographical features and heritage sites. The houses, consisting of dormitories, cubicles and private rooms, are home to about 99% of these students for eight and a half months in a year. Although constructed to accommodate 50 girls, each of the houses currently hosts 170+ students; all from the four different class/form levels. The symmetrical architectural design of the school has two houses in each building except for the two in the middle (Nyali and Suswa), which are home to one house each.
Each house originally had its own house colours, which were reflected in the members' sports kits and tie pins, but this was phased out sometime in the 1970s. However, the house emblems still adorn the front facade of each house.
The area where the houses are located is known as "down blocks" by the students. The houses of residence are built next to each other in a semi-circular shape, clockwise from north-west to south-east as follows:
Phased out day-scholar houses include:
There is a resident matron (housemistress) for every block (two boarding houses) except Nyali and Suswa, which each have their own matron. One of the matrons serves as the Head Matron. Matrons are generally responsible for welfare and disciplinary matters in their individual houses.
Facilities.
Tuition takes place "up-school" which consists of two rows of classrooms and some laboratories (junior and senior corridors). The two corridors are connected at the western tip by a quadrangle consisting of a lecture theatre and laboratories for biology, physics, chemistry and home science. The Computer Centre was later constructed behind the lecture theatre.
The school's own chapel, which was dedicated between the late 1950s and early 1960s, sits between the boarding houses and tuition blocks. With a two-level seating capacity, it houses a piano and a digital church organ. The chapel's western exterior walls are wooden sliding doors which can be opened up to accommodate an outside-seated congregation. It has a unique architectural design in the form of a cross when viewed aerially.
While dining was previously catered for via the old dining hall (currently used for assemblies and other meetings), the school now has a recently constructed modern kitchen and dining complex, whose foundation stone was laid by then President Uhuru Kenyatta in May 2018. This hospitality space was constructed with Ksh 7 million in government funds, was officially commissioned in 2020 and can seat 2,500 students.
There is also a well-stocked library, and a Science &amp; Technology Centre is in the planning, with Ksh 7 million already earmarked for its completion.
Installed by the late 1960s, the Art Studio and Music Room contain spaces for visual and performing arts, with the Music Room having several practice rooms each equipped with a piano.
The sanatorium ("The San") is the school's sickbay, which has a clinic and wards for in-patient treatment. It is managed by two qualified personnel (nurses) on 12-hour shifts. Additionally, a physician is also on call in the event of any complication to give directions and consultancy services to the students. Architecturally, the Lenana School sanatorium is interestingly a near-replica of The KHS one.
For sports, the campus is equipped with a 33-metre swimming pool, a gymnasium, several field hockey pitches and an athletics field, as well as tennis, basketball, netball and volleyball courts.
The school also has its own pond and farm with cattle and crops.
The Kenya High School is also home to the country's first open-air theatre, The Oenone Theatre, named after a former student, Oenone Grellier (1922 - 1944) who passed away in a swimming accident.
Legend has it that, in recognition of the "grade-level wealth" encircled within its fences, the school came to be known and "The Heifer Boma", later simply "Boma", with the students gaining the nickname "Bomarians".
Another version tells that the school has been affectionately known as a "Boma (of heifers)" in reference to a "herd" of young girls who needed to be kept safely out of predators' way.
Architecture.
Situated