Some schools that were torched in Nakuru and Baringo districts at the height- of student riots are yet to re­open for the third term.

Reconstruction of burnt buildings was going on.

Mr Charles Malatit, the principal of Kabarnet High School in Baringo, where a Sh20 million dormitory was razed, said the board of governors (BOG) had not set a date for reopen­ing.

"The BOG will meet soon to decide the date when the students will come back," he said.

The principal could not give the cost of renovation but said millions would be spent considering the dor­mitory was built at a cost of Sh2O mil­lion.

At Shiners Boys High School where a dormitory was burnt, Form One and Two students reported yesterday ac­companied by their parents.

Mr Peter Kiragu, the school princi­pal, told The Standard that each stu­dent was required to bring Sh 1,000 to meet the cost of damage.

The minors were veiled and dressed in the same outfits, to conceal their identity

BY JUDY OGUTU

Three girls allegedly defiled by a Nairobi businessman yesterday be­gan giving evidence in camera.

Journalists and human rights ac­tivists, who had jammed the court­room, were ordered to leave and allow the hearing of the girls' evidence in private.

But the accused, Mr Jon Cardon Wagner, Ms Judy Nyaguthie and Ms Fetha Nyamweru, their lawyers, the prosecutor and the magistrate, Mrs Teresia Ngugi, remained behind.

According to the Children's Act, in all actions concerning children, the best interest of the child shall be a pri­mary consideration in such matters.

Yesterday, the girls were veiled and dressed in the same outfits, making it impossible to identify or differentiate them. A policewoman escorted them along the court corridors.

Activists, who had started trickling into the Nairobi Law Courts as early,

A GLANCE AT THE CASE

Jon Wagner was charged on June 27 with defilement

A doctor has testified claim­ing the girls were defiled The three girls give evidence in camera

Wagner is charged together with two women

The women face charges of child prostitution

The East African JANUARY 12-18, 2009

The study results attest to the acknowledged view that violence against women pervades all social and ethnic groups, writes Dagi Kimani

IS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN rising or is the apparent spike in reported cases a corollary of bet­ter awareness?

That is the questions con­cerned Kenyan gender and health experts are asking themselves, as reported cases rise and treatment needs outstrip existing specialist facilities. According to a study published late last year in the East African Medical Journal, violence against women is now one of the leading public health prob­lems in Kenya, and a massive public education programme should be put in place to deal with it.

Significantly, the study was based on data collected between February 2003 and April 2004, long before the devastat­ing 2007 post-election violence that saw thousands of women assaulted or killed. Before the eruption of the post-elec­tion violence, police estimated that there were about 2,500 cases of sexual vio­lence in Kenya annually. The study was conducted by Dr H. Saidi, Dr K. Awori and Dr P. Odula from the University of Nairobi's School of Medicine. The trio used data from 663 consecu­tive adult patients admitted to the pri­vately owned Nairobi Women's Hospital Gender Violence and Recovery Centre to analyse the patterns of violence against women.