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Gaichanjiru High, a boys’ boarding school in Kandara, Murang’a County, was established by the Catholic Diocese of Nyeri in 1959.
Seating on 15 acres, the school started with the late Rev Fr Victor Deleidi serving as the founding principal. The first cohort of 25 boys largely from Central region were exclusively from Catholic run primary schools.
Up to1967, ‘Gaisha’ was headed by foreign Catholic priests, with majority of staffers being Goans who taught billionaire Equity Bank Group chair Peter Munga, who was among the pioneering students.
From classroom to bullying, business was serious in ‘Gaisha’ that one principal’s famous prophesied “If you survive in Gaichanjiru, you can survive anywhere in the world” giving hope to monos who were given Sh5 by seniors for buying bread, milk and have some change besides doing laundry starring smelly socks.
‘Musita’ was the dreaded punishment — it entailed six strokes of the cane, whose sting lasted a week as boys slept in Mumbi, Kimathi, and Lenana dorms where they conspired to make heaters from spoons. ‘Gaisha’ boys courted Githunguri Girls but the affection soured promting them to jump skirts to Gatanga Girls.
Before acquiring their new bus, many alumni survived with an ‘embarrassing’ Volvo bus nicknamed ‘Rukwama’ (Cart) which was (in) famous for stalling frequently.
‘Gaisha’ was abbreviated to mean ‘Gallant, Ambitious, Intelligent, Sincere, Honest and Active’ even though the school motto which has guided notable alumni including; Transport Cabinet Secretary, James Macharia and Prof Fedrick Otieno, Associate Professor of Endocrinology at the University of Nairobi, was ‘Elimu huangaza giza.’
Other alumni who wore blue shirts, maroon sweaters and grey trousers were former MediaMax head of digital print division Dan Muhuni and Citizen TV reporter Sam Gituku were taught Logarithms by the late teacher, musician, George Wanjaro of Ndakuhe Address hit song.
Former SONU Chairman Zachary Kinuthia and Tahidi High actor Ken Mungai alias Sean loved fried githeri and occasional pork at ‘Gaisha’ where one-man guitarist Joshua ‘Krackwizz’ Kamande sat for his KCSE, but missed the strikes that ended up with invasion into mango farms.
