A Class Four pupil at Kakamega Primary School has for the first time narrated what caused the tragic stampede which killed 14 of her schoolmates.
Accompanied by her parents Hellen Wahito and Alex Muhati, the pupil revealed that a boy from Class Six caused panic among the younger pupils when he told them that he had seen a "blood-thirsty ghost".
"Two boys were fighting, then another pupil came to our classroom and told us that we were being called by our teachers to the staff room. We hadn’t gone far, when a boy climbed to our floor and told us that a ghost was coming to suck our blood. He said that the ghost had horns and was wearing black, red and white coloured clothes and that the ghost was shouting that it wants to drink our blood.
"We were all afraid and others started shouting and running. The boys arranged themselves along the stairs and when the girls were passing the boys were tripping them. So the girls were falling and stepping on each other and many couldn't breathe. I was pushed to the side and rolled on the stairs and I was also chocking and being stepped on but I managed to get out. My friend passed out [died].
"The teachers were not with us when this happened, there were in the staff room and they came when the children who had passed out had been removed, only few children had remained," the pupil narrated in an interview with K24.
Boys have been tripping girls at the stairs - Class 4 survivor from Kakamega Primary
The girl's mother, Hellen, further told reporters that her daughter has been complaining about having her class at top floors and asking to be removed from the school.
"On Thursday last week, my daughter asked me to talk to her father so that she can be transferred from the school. She told me that the boys normally stand at the stairs and trip them [kuwatega] and indeed, on Friday she came home with an injury that she said she had gotted from being tripped and falling at the stairs. I didn't inform the school, I just attended to the injury with first aid.
"On Monday, because there was a parents' meeting at the school, she reminded me to tell her father that she wanted to be removed from a class that is on the top floors. I didn't tell her father and now I realize that there is something my daughter had seen that I ignored. I regret not telling my husband or reporting to the school about what my daughter told me," Hellen narrated.