The Teacher and the System by Christine Mungai bravely exposes a disturbing pattern of alleged misconduct by a long-serving teacher, Peter Ayiro, at the Alliance Girls High School in Kenya. The article meticulously builds a case for a systemic failure that enabled and protected the abuse of girls for years, raising critical questions about institutional accountability and the impact of unchecked authority.
Ayiro’s unconventional teaching methods, spiritual leadership as the Christian Union (CU) patron, and close rapport with successive principals reportedly granted him an almost unparalleled level of trust and freedom within the school’s power structure. This perceived anointing appears to have shielded him from scrutiny, allowing him to take students off-campus, organize private gatherings, and even unofficially excuse them from mandatory school activities.
The most damning aspect of the investigation lies in how the school’s administration, particularly former principal Dorothy Kamwilu, seemed to implicitly endorse Ayiro’s actions. The article suggests a culture where authority and anointing were conflated, making it difficult for students or even other staff to question his conduct. The Walk in the Light motto of the school, meant to represent integrity, instead became a shield, deflecting concerns and perpetuating a cycle of silence and impunity. This highlights a critical flaw: when trust is blindly given to those in power, even clear boundary violations can be dismissed as his thing rather than serious misconduct.
What is worrying about all this is that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministry of Education allowed all this to happen and they seemingly have no proper mechanism for reporting such bad behaviour. Teachers and students should have had access to anonymous way to report such teachers to the authorities so that action can be taken.
The Ayiro story is a stark reminder that institutions can harbour environments where alleged predatory behavior thrives if systems of accountability are weak or intentionally circumvented.
Peter Ayiro should be investigated, arrested and prosecuted for all the years he has abused our children at Alliance Girls High School. His is a heinous crime that shouldn’t go unpunished.
He knew what he was doing was wrong but yet he persisted for years. When he got wind that an article would broadcast his sins, he moved to court to try and block it. He unfortunately wasn’t successful and the world knows him for what he is, a predator.
I’d like to commend the great work by Christine Mungai and Africa Uncensored to bring this story to light.