More than 20 drunk and rowdy secondary school students were arrested on Wednesday in Machakos town in a swoop that was coordinated by the township area senior chief Joshua Kimeu.
One of them was found with 24 rolls of bhang while several others had bottles of second-generation alcohol.
The sting operation followed an outcry by members of the public after the rowdy students were observed generally misbehaving as they popped in and out of drinking dens among other social places.
The move caught the students who had just been released from their schools for the August holidays but had decided to “paint the town red” before boarding vehicles for their homes, surprisingly some of them had discarded their uniforms and donned newly acquired second-hand attire.
They were bundled into waiting vehicles and driven to the police station to await their arraignment later on Thursday and notification of their parents.
“Some of the students had removed their school uniforms and donned cheap mitumba clothes which they bought from unsuspecting sellers at the open-air market,” chief Kimeu told the press in his office, adding that the sellers of the clothes as well as the bar tenders who attended to the students had also been arrested and taken to the Machakos Police Station.
PEER PRESSURE
Chief Kimeu sounded an alert to parents to ensure that they track the movements of their children to and from school, noting that some were succumbing to peer pressure to engage in wayward behaviour.
Members of the public who alerted the officials of the students’ behavior condemned the level of indiscipline among the youth and called for more parental involvement in their young ones’ development and growth.
“Something seems to be wrong with the way we are bringing up our children nowadays and it is time we reexamined our approach to parenting,” said a newspaper vendor at the main bus stage which was teeming with students drawn from several school.
He suggested that caning should be re-introduced in schools as a way of dealing with indiscipline among adolescents.
The event mirrors another in Nakuru were over 50 students released from schools were rounded up by police while drinking alcohol and watching pornographic movies at a local joint.
