Kisumu Girls: Where Gladys Wanga was a tough Head Girl

 Before security was tightened, the girls would sneak for night discos at Kondele, while others went for dates with KB or Maseno boys at Amabala Fish and Chips

Just as Eve was fleshed out of Adam’s rib, so was Kisumu Girls’ High School fleshed out of Kisumu Boys in 1962.

Kisumu Boys (KB) was founded as an Indian primary school 37 years earlier.

‘KG’, as Kisumu Girls is famously known, was expanded by the colonial government, with harambees doing the rest by 1977. It became a national school in 2012, and a year later, trounced KB, whose students went on rampage when results were released in March 2014.

Before security was tightened, the girls would sneak for night discos at Kondele, while others went for dates with KB or Maseno boys at Amabala Fish and Chips... but they paid with a two-week suspension! ‘Mr Hooker’ always warned them against sporting a ballooning stomach that wasn’t a result of over eating!

The school bus, ‘Air Force One,’ was an upgrade from a rust bucket van.

KG girls were scorned by Kisumu Boys for cutting grass as punishment - most preferred washing cooking pans or watering flowerbeds instead. Those caught rushing to pee before the assembly began were made to kneel on the rough ground.

Notable alumni who wore blue sweaters, skirts, white blouses and red ties include; Homa Bay Women Rep Gladys Wanga, who was a Head Girl, and Kisumu nominated MCA, Farida Salim. Among the girls from KG who shared the hockey field with KB was Telkom Orange hockey player Judith Apiyo, while K24 anchor Ageng’a Wanjiku and Frosty Ltd Director Kajal Kotak, shared the swimming pool with KB boys.

Indeed, there are several media practitioners, among them Brenda Odingo (Editor - CCTV News, Africa), Standard Group’s editor Evelyne Kwamboka, and journalists Roselyne Obala and Lydia Limbe, who swilled hot porridge and boiled eggs and tricked Ismati, the elderly matron, to cover up for their mischief.

Others who were guided by the motto, ‘Aspire for Excellence,’ are anthropologist Dorothy Otieno, Maseno University Senior Registrar Rose Omoga, and Imperial Hotel Purchasing Manager, Kena Shah. Others are PR officers Hellen Kimaru (Nairobi Women’s Hospital), Anne Ajanja (UN), Virginia Akinyi (Kenya Ports Authority) and Commercial Bank of Africa’s Relationship Manger, Donnah Siso.