Alliance High School was the first school in Kenya to offer secondary school education to Africans. It was founded on 1 March 1926 by the Alliance of Protestant Churches - The Church of Scotland Mission (later known as the Presbyterian Church of East Africa or PCEA), Church of the Province of Kenya (CPK), African Inland Church (AIC), and the Methodist Church.
The school is situated in Kikuyu, about 22 kilometres (12 miles) from Nairobi's central business district. The school is a 10-minute walk from the Alliance Girls' High School which has been its sister school.
Alliance High School is highly reputed for its rich history, the quality of its education and its consistent levels of academic excellence over a period of over 80 years. It has always been ranked within the top ten best schools in each year's National Examinations. It was ranked first in the country from 1960-1985. In 1986 it lost its top ranking for the first time in 25 years, slipping to 3rd. It was ranked first in the country in 2005 based on the results of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. In 2006 its rank dropped slightly to third.
The school, whose motto is "Strong to Serve", admits talented students from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds who work towards excellence in all aspects of the school's activities. Alliance has produced leaders in many areas of human endeavor who still bear a strong attachment to their alma mater. The Old Boys body is very strong and has a website and a yahoo group known as bushfire.
The current Principal is Mr. David Gideon Kariuki.
Alliance High School was the first high school for Africans in Kenya. It was founded by the Alliance of Churches of Kenya on 1st March 1926 and officially opened on 1st October 1926. This alliance of protestant churches comprised:
The first principal of Alliance High School was George Arthur Grieve, M.A, B.Ed who began 1926 with 27 students. The first name on the first student roll was that of James Muigai wa Johnstone. The school was officially opened on 1 October 1926 at a ceremony attended by the then colonial governor Sir Edward Grigg who became the school’s first patron.
Strong to Serve
Lord while for all mankind we pray, Of every Clime and coast, Oh hear us for our native school, The school we love the most, The school we love the most, The school we love the most.
The school is among the elite high schools in the country academically, always being ranked in the top 10 positions every year. [1] It has never been ranked outside the top 10 positions. The school holds the country record for most consecutive years holding the pole position in the K.C.S.E exams (1960-1985). In the K.C.S.E results announced in 2011, the school emerged top in the country. In the same year, the school had more than 100 students score a mean grade of A in the national exams. The school is ranked the 32nd best high school in Africa.[2]
Every year, over 98% of the school's graduates get admission to Kenyan universities. The school also boasts sending students to Ivy League Universities, Stanford University, M.I.T and other universities in the U.S.A. Others go on to attend prestigious universities in Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and many other countries.
In the year 2010, the school also emerged top in the K.C.S.E results [3]
The school usually recruits students who have excelled at primary school level in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examinations (K.C.P.E). Its quota system sees to it that the school recruits boys from every district in the country as long as they are the top performers in their respective districts and chose to be admitted to the school.
Students are admitted on a need-blind basis. At any given time, there are needy students whose tuition and boarding fees are paid by parties other than their parents or guardians. This is thanks to the school’s strong alumni network (the Old Boys Club)[4] as well as the large number of friends the school has around the world.
In the first 2 years at the school, a student has to take the following compulsory subjects – Mathematics, Languages (English and Kiswahili), Sciences (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), Geography, History, Computer Studies and Christian Religious Education. On top of this, the student also has to choose one of the following optional subjects – Agriculture, Art and Design, Business Studies, French, German or Music. Upon entering form three, the student can take a minimum of 7 subjects to be examined in the K.C.S.E as per the Kenya National Examinations Council (K.N.E.C) guidelines. Most A.H.S students take 8 subjects.
The school has an active sports department and is a perennial participant in the national sports festival. The following games are offered at the school: athletics, badminton, basketball, football (soccer), handball, hockey, lawn tennis, rugby football, swimming and table tennis.
To facilitate this wide range of sports, the school has three basketball courts, a football pitch, two hockey pitches, a swimming pool, a handball field, an athletics track and a gymnasium, inside which can be found the table tennis table.
The school's routine includes a compulsory games period every weekday from 16:15hrs to 17:30hrs. (Except on Tuesdays when this program is suspended for clubs’ and societies’ meetings.) There are also numerous inter-house sports competitions spread across the three school terms.
During the second school term, a mini Olympics is held in the school. During this event, all 9 houses compete against each other in various track and field events. The winning house bags the much coveted Standards Trophy and gets to feast on a bull during the end of term school dinner.
There is also a compulsory cross-country jog on the first weekend of the school term. This event is particularly unpopular among the students and many an A.H.S student are known to approach the games master with one excuse or another in an effort to avoid the jog.
Clubs and societies are a key component of student life at the school. There are over 20 clubs and societies including the Debating Society, the Scouts Movement, the school choir, Writers’ Club, the Poetry Society, Kiswahili Club, the Model United Nations, the Seventh Day Adventists(SDA) Society, the Christian Union, Muslim Association among many others. These clubs usually meet on Tuesdays from 16:16hrs to 17:30hrs. Club officials can however meet at a time outside this after asking for permission from the boarding master. All club members elect their own officials in the third term of the academic year. They also have a master who serves as the club patron.
The most active and successful clubs in the school are the school choir, the dramatics society and the scouts club. The Alliance High School Scouts boast being the first troop of African scouts in the continent.
The school has several exchange programs but the longest running ones are the Brooks Exchange Program and the Sir John Leeman Exchange Program. There is also the Governor's Exchange Program.
Every year, 2 form 3 students of outstanding character both inside and outside the classroom are chosen to participate in the Brooks Exchange Program. The two students usually serve as hosts to two other students from Brooks School. Unlike the Brooks Exchange Program, the Sir John Leeman Exchange Program takes place once every 2 years.
The school has nine houses which house its almost 1000 students. The houses are, in order of age:
A lot of activities within the school are based on the house system. This includes the arrangement at the parade ground where assemblies are conducted every morning and role call parades conducted often. Inter house competitions are often conducted and range from activities like music and elocution, drama, math contest, cleanliness competitions, to sports such as soccer, rugby, racquet games, swimming, etc.
At the end of every term, during the school dinner, awards are held where the winning house in every category receives a carton of biscuits. First and second runners up receive half and quarter a carton respectively. The winning house in athletics is awarded a bull which is slaughtered and offered for a party.
The houses have a committee of form 3 students who run the house's day to day activities. This committee is usually chosen by the house prefects and the house master. It is made up of the chairmen, V. Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, V. Treasurer, Store keeper, etc. In most cases, these committee members end up as the house prefects.
Students in these houses are housed in ultra-modern hostels. The hostels are structured into cubicles where four students occupy one cubicle.) The hostels have two wash room facilities each with hot showers, laundry areas, ironing bays, a common room and open lawns.
Prefects at the school are usually form 3 and form 4 students who have shown outstanding leadership abilities at the house level. Most of them are usually chosen from the house committees. During the second term of the academic year, they are appointed to be prefects by the principal after being nominated and vetted by the house masters and current house prefects. They are then put through a rigorous training session by their fourth form counterparts in preparation for running the school the following year.
The prefects are key to the running of the school. It is they who see that the school routine and school rules are adhered to. They have the authority to punish culprits via the prefect’s punishment department. Punishments include washing corridors and rooms, slashing fields and in some extreme cases, working in the school farm or uprooting tree stumps. The prefects enjoy some privileges over non prefects. These include walking while changing classes (while other students run), wearing grey trousers on weekdays (while the non prefects wear khaki shorts) and they have a special table in the dining hall.
The school’s principals, in order of service are:
The Alliance High School maintains strong ties with its sister school, Alliance Girls High School, ever since the latter was founded as the African Girls High School in 1948. Each of the 9 houses at the Alliance High School have sister houses at Alliance Girls High School. The houses usually participate in an annual get together pre- or post- Valentine’s Day event called Socials. There is also a joint Christmas Carol service held in the school chapel towards the end of the third term. On Sunday mornings, Muslim students from the girls’ school usually congregate with their male counterparts at the Alliance High School’s Carey Francis Memorial Lecture Theater. Mail correspondence between the two schools takes place on a daily basis and is free of charge.
Having been founded by Christian missionaries, the school holds Christian values with high esteem. The school’s badge is embodied with the cross; students say grace before partaking any meal; daily Chapel Service (except on Saturdays) is compulsory for all Christian students and Christian Religious Education is a compulsory subject for all form 1 and 2 students.
However, being a national school that draws students from all over the country, Alliance High School has a small population of non-Christian students, mostly Muslims. These students have the liberty to practise their faith. When the Christian students attend the daily morning chapel service, Muslim students congregate separately to carry out a religious service of their own. Although there is no permanent mosque in the school, there is always a room set aside that serves as a mosque. Due to Islamic Sharia dietary requirements, Muslim students have separate tables in the dining hall.
The Alliance High School community is rich in culture. Form one students are usually expected to water their flower beds and mop their dorm rooms every morning, much to their chagrin. The form ones are also expected to take the unpopular tie test before they can be issue with the school’s blue tie. This test serves to educate the freshmen on the school’s history and current affairs at the school. Upon arrival, every form 1 student is assigned a ‘guardian’ who is a form 2 student who will help the form 1 find his way around the school in the first few weeks.
The art of 'lifting' is a common practice among form three students. Lifting is the process of placing oneself in a position worthy of being considered for appointment as a prefect (or any other senior post). Students who miss out on such opportunities are often referred to as 'neshists'. Popular form threes who end up 'neshing' often end up in informal posts kwown as 'senior commoners'. These are form four students who enjoy priveleges similar to those of prefects without necessarily getting punished.
The one common bond shared by form ones and twos is the issue of senior and junior shorts (called ‘kaptulas’). The store keeper usually issues form ones and twos with pairs of shorts that form creases rather easily. These creases also take a little too long to go away under the iron box. The shorts that seniors (form threes and fours) are issued with are usually of a much higher quality. Juniors have been known to buy such shorts from outgoing seniors. Irate prefects waste no time in booking such offenders and senior students usually pick on them for crossing this divide.
No single prefect is as unpopular as the deputy school captain, who is wont to incorporate uncommon words in his speeches in the dining hall. These speeches are usually the deputy school captain issuing threats at a higher than average pitch.
The two canteens are usually student hotspots as they go a long way in supplementing the boys’ diet. The scouts’ canteen is said to favor the gym members as pushing and shoving is not uncommon as the lights out time approaches and students struggle to beat the time.
Over the years, the school has consistently opened and closed its term calendar on Thursdays. The first Saturday is often marked with a cross-country race popularly known as 'orosoo'. Closing days are characterized by a school dinner on the closing eve, where students are treated to a sumptuous meal and an award ceremony held. The school is then closed early next morning through a final assembly where the students sing the dismissal hymn, "Lord dismiss us with thy blessing."
Thursday is a special day at the Alliance High School. On Thursdays, students conduct hymn practice in the chapel, students speak Swahili, fish is served during dinner, among other activities.
The most popular form of entertainment in the school is the Saturday movies. Every Saturday a club asks the entertainment department for the rights to host a movie in order to supplement its coffers. School movies held in the school hall are usually free of charge. However, the most popular movies are the joint movies that are usually held termly with the Alliance Girls’ School. These used to be held at night but have since been changed to afternoons.
Boys at the school wear white shirts, khaki shorts, grey stockings with 2 red stripes on either side of a blue stripe; black or brown shoes; jungle green pullovers and a blue tie. Grey trousers are worn on Sundays and specific school events such as on Founders Day Celebrations. Prefects wear ties with red stripes rather than the conventional blue one.
No single high school in Kenya has had as many of its alumni in the cabinet as the Alliance High School has. However, the A.H.S alumni have also made their mark in fields other than the civil service. The list below mentions some, not all, of the prominent people who have gone through the Alliance High School System.
The school has on several occasions been accused of relying of examination leakages to pass exams. The accusers also say that most of the school's teachers set the national exams and as such, what they teach their students is what appears in the exams. However, these allegations have never been proven. The school points to the fact that its students usually go on to excel in other fields of academia. The school also says that the fact that it picks the best students from across the reason behind its perennial success.
The current administration, that of Mr. Kariuki, has been accused by some of the school's old boys of forsaking the school's traditions in favor of academic success. The old boys accuse the principal of abandoning some extra curricular activities in order to use more time for academics.