Head Teacher wants justice for Kescia Branche

By Bibi Khatoon

Friends and family today bid farewell to 22-year-old school teacher, Kescia Branche.

Branche died at the Georgetown Public Hospital on November 7, two days after she was found unconscious with a broken leg along a stretch of road at Princes Street and Louisa Row. A post-mortem examination revealed that she died as a result of brain haemorrhaging and blunt trauma to the head.

The viewing of the body was held today at the Lyken’s funeral home followed by the homegoing service at the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) building on Woolford Avenue, Georgetown.

Kescia’s twin sister, Kessandra Branche who was at her bedside when she died at the GPHC, did not move from next to the coffin as pleaded with her sister to return to her.

Outraged by the circumstances under which she died, numerous supporters including students of the Richard Ishmael Secondary School where Branche was a teacher, actors from the Theatre Guild where she took part in many plays, turned up to lend support to her family and friends.

The atmosphere at the gathering was somewhat quiet as persons reflected on the short and inspiring life she lived and the fact that the person (s) responsible for her death is still to be held responsible. This was the highlight of a tribute read by Head Teacher of the Richard Ishmael Secondary School, Melanie Jones.

“I do hope that they solve your case and that your killer or killers doesn’t or don’t disappear without a trace, this nonsense has become too commonplace and I take the blame as part of the human race,” Jones said as she shared a poem.

She said that those who blamed the young teacher for her death are not ready to be humans.

Kereece Branche, Kescia’s younger sister, described her as someone who always goes after what she wants and determined to get it.

“It always seems like Kescia was never too young for anything, but this time she was,” Kereece said in her tribute as she broke down in tears. The mother of one was laid to rest in Buxton, East Coast Demerara. Police are yet to charge anyone with her suspected murder.