Cases of what doctors call hysteria, and which Coast residents believe are ghost attacks, have increased.
Last year, ‘ghosts’ attacked Mbaraki Primary School. Then Mombasa Mayor Sharrif Shekue rushed to the school with two goats – a black and a white, which were sacrificed in the school compound to ‘appease the spirits’.
But Muslim and Christian parents opposed this, saying only superstitious people allowed sacrifices in schools. The incident made many parents withdraw their children from the school, leading to suspension of learning for some days.
At least two to four cases of ‘ghost attacks’ that lead to indefinite closure of schools have been reported every month this year.
Belief in superstition
Experts, however, say apart from biological and environmental factors, the disturbances in schools by ‘unseen forces’ could be due because Coast Province abounds in superstitious beliefs.
Every time ‘ghosts’ attack a school, parents rush to ‘rescue’ their children. The latest was at Star of the Sea High School last week, which is reported to have affected students and parents.
Being a Catholic school, a priest was summoned and a doctor called in to assess the situation.
However, they left without a solution as students cried, made noise and fell on the ground, while others got angry and demanded that the gates of the school be opened to set them free.
Dr Jennifer Othigo, who is the chief administrator of the Coast General Hospital and a guidance and counselling expert, says several factors are responsible for the incidents in girls’ schools.
She says lack of guidance and counselling for adolescents, was largely the problem.
“Such situations cause anxiety in the young girls and when they do not get the right guidance at the right time by the right people, it can be chaotic,” says Othigo.
