From Caribbean360

NAIROBI, Kenya, Friday October 10, 2014, CMC – A High Court judge has ordered the parents of a six-year-old boy, who unsuccessfully sued his school, to cut off his dreadlocks before he is allowed into the school.

High Court judge Mumbi Ngugi dismissed the lawsuit after he ruled that the boy, whose father is a Jamaican, had failed to convince the court that his culture and religious rights had been violated.

“The petitioner has not shown this court that the child practices Rastafarian religion, had she proved this, she could have persuaded this court,” she said.

The six-year-old boy had sued Rusinga School after he was ordered to cut off the dreadlocks.

But the judge ruled that it was clear the boy’s mother wanted him to keep dreadlocks for fashion and not religious reasons as she had alleged. She said the mother, whose name was also not disclosed, knew all along, since she enrolled him at the school’s kindergarten in 2010, that dreadlocks are not permitted.

Justice Ngugi said the mother signed the school’s code of conduct agreeing to observe rules and regulations.

The ruling means that the un-identified six-year-old, who has been absent from school since September 7, will have to either cut off his hair to enable him resume school or look for another school that will accommodate his style.

The mother had also argued that the school’s directive to have her son’s hair cut was discriminative.

She argued that the boy’s father is Jamaican and the dreadlocks are part of his culture. The mother wanted the school to be compelled to accept the boy back, saying the decision is illegal as it discriminates on gender, religious and cultural grounds.

The school, however, said it is a Christian school and does not accept boys to have dreadlocks.

In her ruling, Ngugi said courts have no desire in interfering with the running of institutions, adding that schools must be allowed to govern their pupils.

IMAGE: School_813187199

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