State House Girls

During World War I, more hospitals were established to meet the needs of military forces. Up until then, the colonial administration had built several perishable dispensaries and a European Hospital for white civil servants. In 1940, Sir Henry Monck-Mason Moore rose to the position of Governor and one of the implementations under his leadership was that European education was made compulsory. This inevitably led to an increment in enrollment rates at the local European schools.

Later, following World War II, more Europeans settled in British East Africa and there was more pressure on European schools to expand. By the fifties, existing schools acquired more land, and new schools started sprouting. At that time, the European Hospital was right next to what had become Nairobi Primary School, and the colonial government decided to temporarily shut down the hospital and find a new location for it as a school was set up on the land. The European hospital’s main building became the administration for New Girls’ Secondary School. The new school admitted a significant number of girls and towards the end of 1955, the school relocated to Eldoret, 260 kilometers west of Nairobi.

The present site was taken up by a new school that was named in honour of British Settler, Lord Delamere. The Delamere High School body would consist of both boys and girls, admitting those that weren’t successful in their enrollment at either Kenya Girls’ High School or Prince of Wales School. The school maintained its status quo up until 1958 when the school was divided. The boys were relocated to Upper Hill area and became Delamere Boys’ High School; The girls – Delamere Girls’ High School.

DGHS went through its most memorable changes in the sixties. In 1962, the first Asian girls, Parviz Shirin Manji and Gwaderi Shwamshad, were admitted into the school. The following year, transition became part and parcel of the newly independent state. In 1964, the two first African girls, Philomena Wamaitha and Jessica Ngoya, enrolled at the school – with Njoya becoming the first African prefect and thereafter head girl in ‘65 and ‘66 respectively. By then, more Africans and Asians were enrolling at these former European-only schools and names of roads were changed to further put into effect our independence. The road on which DGHS was situated was given the name State House Road, and the school’s name was changed in 1967 to State House Road Girls’ High School. Later, ‘road’ was emitted from the name, and as we know it today, State House Girls’ High School came to be. Up until then, for about six years, the school’s administration had been under a Board of Governors. In 1973 the school was taken over by the Government of Kenya and became a fully maintained government school.

State House Girls’ School is undoubtedly a branch from a tree whose roots have extended to different parts of the country. Are you an alumnus? Did your mother or sister or cousins attend this #KeSchool? We love to read your flashback stories