ABSTRACT
The dense scent of alcohol emerging from the principal made it difficult to focus on the introduction in staff room. New and obligatory fees were introduced regularly and at a fast pace. The students had begun to be charged fees for ‘broken chairs’. The library consisted only of books bought by students. Provision of library cards, which granted access to the library, depended on whether a student could donate few textbooks. The matron unjustly allocated better dormitories to students with money. Lavington is an upper-class area in a leafy part of Nairobi that is inhabited by the rich, including the Kenyan elite and foreign expatriates. The social world of the college was also divided in other ways. Students who paid their fees in full before the semester started were a small group referred to as the ‘bosses’. They were believed to be invincible, superior and matchless, and rightly enjoyed enhanced rights because having paid their fees gave them exclusive status.
