Hundreds of Fathers, guardians, uncles among other close male relatives to students at St Marys’ Girls High School turned up in large numbers to grace the historic day at the school.
The 14th February is a worldwide holiday themed Valentine but the administration of St Marys Mumias Girls chose to come up with Fathers’ Day so that the father figure can come and model out love on their daughters.
According the schools’ Senior Principal Mrs Monica Buchichi, a father is a daughter’s first love but most dads seem not to understand and its high time they want fathers to come forth and show love to their daughters.
“We know that today is Valentine’s Day but we insisted on father figures to bond with their daughters as we want daughters to be free with their dads. We want dads to take leadership roles in homes, take care of their daughters in the right way, be open, share, exchange, and love,” said Mrs Buchichi.
She added, “We are living in different times and age that have really changed, there are fathers who are very strict to their children and at no given time have they told their daughters that they love them. Some hear the word I love you from the wrong person and this messes things as the girls end up believing that person as no one has ever told them.”
She noted that if one shares love with their daughter, they will be open with them and will be ready to share anything that affects her with them.
Dads were also discouraged from using harsh words on their daughters but instead talk to them nicely, as there are cases where a father uses words like, ‘I sold my cow to pay school for another cow,’ that’s if the daughter is not impressing academically something that lowers the self-esteem of the daughter.
She asked the dads to be so close to the administration for close monitoring of the academic progress of their daughters.
“Kindly be coming to school, not only for fees payment but you are allowed to visit my office any day, any time for the betterment of your daughter,” she said.
Asked about what made the school come up with the special day for fathers, the Senior Principal said that the school has a history of posting impressive results and has a crash programme, as there is no time that is wasted.
The school programmes start at 0400hrs to 2300hrs and candidates and pre-candidates have a crash programme. The girls also need a day just to relax and showcase their talents.
“We are bringing up these girls wholly and we want them not only to go to the university but also take up premier courses at the university. In any hostile environment, production cannot be realised but we are doing everything humanely possible to see to it that our girls get the best and that is why we chose to incorporate fathers in the lives of the girls,” she said.
Deputy County Commissioner Mumias West, Mr Charles hailed the principal for coming up with such a noble program to incorporate fathers in the lives of their daughters as it can change a lot.
He said many fathers are pre-occupied with life challenges of fees, provision for the family and many others and they hardly get time to be directly involved in the lives of their daughters.
According to him, many fathers give fees to the mothers to pay but mothers don’t tell the children that it is the dad who has given the fee but it is her and the children grow up knowing that it is the mother who pays fees.
“No wonder when children make it in life, they concentrate on their mothers something that has to change. I am a proud dad to several girls who are in several schools but I have never attended such a function and I ask the school around to emulate what the great St Marys has just started by involving fathers in the welfare of the child,” he said.
The days Chief Guest Mr Moses Sitati who is the mentor to the 2024 candidates’ class, highlighted the types of fathers.
According to Mr Sitati, there are different types of father’s ranging from absent, abusive, silent, present and no father.
He said fathers should be present in the lives of their daughters, encourage them to thrive independently, not to intimidate them and always be assuring them that they are very special in life.
He said the roles of the father ranges from physical, emotional, mental, and social.
“A father who is involved in the daughter’s life, her self-esteem is always high and emotionally stable,” he said.
Dads were equally elated and promised to support the school administration, especially in paying school fees in time and supporting the school programmes so that girls can be super people in their next life after St Marys.
