Five Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination candidates in Mombasa were yesterday rushed to Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital (CGTRH) with respiratory complications after they reportedly inhaled a gas believed to be toxic.

The candidates were about to begin taking their morning exam at Makande Girls Secondary School in Mombasa when they reportedly started developing breathing difficulties.

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba who was in Mombasa to monitor the exams and close the Kenya Primary School Head Teachers Association (KEPSHA) conference confirmed the incident and said the five candidates were forced to do their exams in hospitals.

“The five students were taken to hospital, their papers were taken there and they did it from the hospital,” the CS said.

The other 84 candidates were immediately moved to neighbouring Makupa Boys High School, which was considered safe for them to continue with their exams.

Witnesses say the five affected students appeared to be running out of breath as they were reportedly seen struggling and gasping for air.

It would later emerge that they had inhaled fumes of a hydrocarbon gas but it was not immediately clear how the gas ended up in the school and at such dangerous levels.

Addressing the press at the scene, Mombasa County Chief Officer in charge of fire Ibrahim Basafar said his office received a distress call from the area sub-county police commander Maxwell Agoro, at around 7.15 am, who informed him of reports of a noxious gas that had been detected in the school.

A multi-agency team including the Hazmat (Hazardous material) team, police, fire and rescue, Public Health, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) and health officials was immediately activated to move in and contain the situation.

“As we speak now, the gas levels have gone low and no longer poisonous,” Basafar said at the scene in the morning, noting that the candidates were out of danger.

Deferment cases
The five students were immediately ferried to CGTRH in ambulances.

The education CS said that going forward, the government would propose a change of policy to allow students caught up in emergency situations to defer exams.

“Because of these issues relating to pregnancies and others doing exams when they are sick I am going to look into the policy whereby we can be able to defer an exam to allow students in emergencies do those exams later on. So that they do it well when they have the capacity and they are in good health and the environment is conducive,” the Cs explained.

In Juja, Kiambu county, a KCSE candidate at Kings David Junior and Secondary School has been sitting the exams with an oxygen cylinder and tubes to aid her breathing. Unable to walk, she has been relying on a hired taxi service to transport her to and from school, located a few kilometres from their rented home at Sewage estate opposite Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) to pursue her dreams.

According to her father Paul Njiru, the girl developed health complications at birth, preventing her from walking. Although they enrolled her in a special school for her primary school studies and produced splendid performance, her condition limited her from joining prestigious schools where she had earned slots following her excellent grades.

She ended up joining King David Junior and Secondary School instead.

“She is a go-getter and despite her condition, she is ready to transit to the next stage of academic studies through thick and thin,” Njiru told People Daily.

According to her father, her situation deteriorated in December last year prompting her immediate hospitalisation. Her weakening heart condition necessitated the continuous use of oxygen since March this year.

The family has had to make do with the goodwill of well-wishers such as Susan Wangu, the Kiambu Huduma Centre manager who have been struggling to help the family through donations and other forms of support.

“We appeal to Kenyans to support this child because she is a lover of education and progress. The gas cylinder is refilled every three weeks and the support machines at their home consumes a lot of power,” said Wangu.