Mang’u High School has a rich and unique history. When it was founded – with its first location being Kabaa in Machakos County – it was one of the few schools in the colony that aimed to educate African boys. Needless to say, this pioneer school has had an incredible journey.
Mang’u has its roots at Kilungu Catholic mission station, located in present-day Machakos County. In 1923, the Holy Ghost Fathers missionaries were running a Catholic mission station in Kilungu. They decided that the mission station’s school – the Central School for Catechists – needed to be expanded. The Spiritans, as the Holy Ghost Fathers were also known, did not want this expansion to take place at Kilungu mission station. For this reason, Kabaa was chosen as the new location. Michael Joseph Witte, the Dutch Catholic priest who ran the existing school, was chosen to head the new institution. The Kabaa site on which the new school was established had previously been a Catholic mission station. However, it had been abandoned in 1920 due to a lack of sufficient converts.
On 19th January 1925, The Central Training School for Catechists was opened in Kabaa and 35 students joined the school. Five days into their new school, the students were requested to sign a pledge that required them to complete the three-year course. The pledge also necessitated that upon completion of the course, they would serve in Catholic missions for five years.
The curriculum of the school consisted of academic subjects, technical subjects, a vocational program, and a vernacular examination; the latter was a Kiswahili exam. In 1926, 35 students sat for the school’s first public exam, and of the number, 32 excelled. When it came to discipline, Principle Witte was just. He was preparing his students for the future and thus only issued out punishments after a student had made an admission of guilt.
The headmaster’s supervision was praised. So much that in 1930, the school took on a new name in memory of the first headmaster. The Central Training School for Catechists re-introduced itself as St. Michael Mission School. One of the revamped school’s new faces was a secondary school. However, as planning began, the government delayed the issuing of a grant needed to fund the project. It was even suggested that the Catholics should be accommodated by the Protestants. The idea seemed far-fetched as the Protestants had already started a school of their own called the Alliance High School. Ultimately, the idea did not bode well with either denomination.
In the midst of the delays, in 1929, Witte secretly began a secondary class and enrolled four students: Cyrillus Ojoo, Paul Njoroge, Stefan Kimani, and Lukas Kibe. The boys sat for the Junior Secondary School Examination in 1930 and passed. In spite of the success of their pilot candidates, the school, for reasons unknown, did not enroll students for the Senior Secondary Examination. It wasn’t until 1939, when the Senior Secondary Examination was replaced with the Cambridge School Certificate Examination, that the school enrolled its students for the senior exam.
This same year, St. Michael Mission School went on to complete its plan of establishing a secondary section. Three students joined the school and soon after, one left. The remaining two, Stephen Kioni and Philip Getao, remained hopeful. They sat for and passed their Cambridge School Certificate Examinations in 1940.
The good fortune didn’t end there. That same year, St. Michael Mission Secondary School changed site from Kabaa to Mang’u village where the name changed to Mang’u High School. Shortly after, in 1972, the new school relocated to a little growing area – where it currently is – to accommodate its growing student population. As the years have passed, so have our fathers, brothers, and siblings gone through this academically excellent school.
Share with us your Mang’u motto, memories and history. We’re always looking to hear it from the alumni because they had firsthand experience.