OF MARAKWET HIGH SCHOOL AND THE FORTY ONE FIREPLACES

 

By Thomas Chemelil

Marakwet Secondary School( now St. Peter's Marakwet High School) is definitely one of the old schools that has served the community well producing great men and women. 

I stumble on one Mzee Luka Kotut at Wagon Wheel in Eldoret who narrates to me a hilarious tale of Marakwet High School. It must have then been an Inntermediate School.

The year is 1966. The characters in the story? The likes of Cheptile, Kotut amonst others. 

In total, there were 41 students in the school. 30 from Marakwet and 11 from Keiyo. 

The interesting part of the story is that each of the forty one students had his own fireplace where he would cook his own meals! In total there were 41 fireplaces or what Mzee Kotut would funnily call " Kabekeren chole artam oko akong'o".

Each student brought his own flour from home and other necessary items in order to individually cook his own meals. 

Tired of the messy process, young Kotut asked the students to approach the Board of Governors to assist them get a cook. The students then feared the Board and it was left to Kotut to surmon courage to face them.

The late mzee Josphat (RIP) of Cheptongei was in the Board then. Kotut was asked by the Board where the flour would be obtained from and he told them that the students would contribute.The board was very receptive of the idea then and decided to hire a cook. 

The challenge arose when the other 30 students from Marakwet refused the idea of having a common cook as they were all comfortable with cooking their individual meals.   

When the cook arrived on a Monday, there was a spectacle when a large portion of students refused to buy the idea. Kotut had a weird idea. He ordered the 11 Keiyo students to always march majestically in a file as they went to pick their meals from the cook!

It did not take long before the rest of the 30 students from Marakwet bought the idea of giving their unga portions to the cook for a common cooking.