@ppcheti
Learners from terror prone Boni in Lamu county finally reported back to school, one month after schools re-opened for the third term.
More than 100 learners had been stuck in their homes due to insecurity and transportation logistics.
Boni children school at the Mokowe Arid Zone Boarding Primary School.
The institution was founded in 1992 to specifically cater to learners from underprivileged communities like the Bonis, Sanye and Orma in Lamu county.
Due to security challenges in their area, they have had to previously be airlifted to their school.
The major road connecting the villages to the rest of Lamu has numerously been targeted by al Shabaab militants who plant improvised explosives targeting security vehicles and civilians.
Since 2014, the Mokowe school has become a permanent learning institution for over 300 learners from the Boni community.
The other five schools in their villages were torched and vandalised by militants between 2014 and 2017 after which teachers fled.
Over the weekend, scores of Boni learners from Grades 3 to 8 trekked for kilometers from their homes in Basuba, Mangai, Mararani and Milimani.
They converged at Kiangwe close to the Lamu-Somali border where the county government had sent a boat to pick and them and drop them in school.
The exercise was led by Lamu county Disaster Response director Shee Kupi.
Kupi said it was impossible to pick the learners from their respective villages due to insecurity. Consequently, they had been advised to trek to the boat's location.
The use of vehicles to ferry learners to school was ruled out as the roads are prone to IED attacks from al Shabaab.
“They had to walk to the boat location from their villages for their own safety. Bottom line is they are in class now. Despite being late by a month, we hope they catch up and do well,” Kupi said.
In 2017, four pupils died alongside four police officers at Ota after their vehicle ran over a landmine suspected to have been planted by al Shabaab.
The pupils had hiked a lift to school on the Rapid Border Patrol Unit vehicle.
The learners were travelling from their village in Mararani, Boni forest to Kiunga Primary School on the border.
It is such incidents that make residents weary of using roads. It has become a challenge for Boni learners to travel to and from their schools.
On Monday, Mokowe Arid Zone Primary School head teacher Charles Mzee confirmed that all Boni learners had arrived at the school over the weekend.
“We have them all in school. We even have new learners who have joined the others. This shows these children really want to get an education and I pray they continue to get the support needed to enable that,” he said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
