St. Patrick's High School (Iten, Kenya)

St. Patrick's High School in Iten, Keiyo District, Rift Valley Province in Kenya is a boys only secondary school operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Eldoret. It operates as a boarding school for about 500 students from throughout the rural district. The school has a staff of about 28 teachers and a similar number of support personnel.

The school was founded by the Patrician Brothers, Irish missionaries to Kenya in 1961, following the Mau Mau uprising, when there were only two other secondary schools for African boys north of Naivasha.

The school offsets student fees with an on campus farm. The school claims to be in the academic top 100 out of 2200 such schools in Kenya. The “Iten Maths Contest,” started in 1975, is a national mathematics competition of secondary schools, hosted, organised and judged by St. Patrick’s High School staff. In 1989, the school was one of the first in Kenya to get computers. It remains one of the most advanced through its network of alumni worldwide.

Brother Colm O'Connell of Ireland came to Iten in 1976 expecting to stay just three months teaching geography, but has remained there ever since. He began coaching a track and field team at the school. The product of the team is some of the best middle and long distance running athletes in the world, including several Olympic gold medalists, and numerous world champions world record setters and elite marathoners. Many athletes are attracted to the school. The surrounding town of Iten, with a population of about 4,000, is said to house as many as 500 athletes, a high altitude training camp, and many people related to the sport.

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