A Bishop Atundo High School teacher charged with killing his student by caning has been released for lack of evidence
Chrispinus Wanyonyi was set free by Bungoma magistrate Charles Mutahi after Buluma police said they had no evidence to proceed with the case.
The prosecution told court a postmortem on Bethwel Ogola, aged 16, had shown he died of a heart ailment, which had nothing to do with the teacher hitting him.
Wanyonyi first appeared in court on March 6 but police were granted more time to investigate.
It was alleged that the teacher, while conducting a maths revision class, beat Ogola until he fell to the ground, injuring his head. He fell into a coma.
Bethwel was taken to a dispensary and later to Bungoma West.
He was beaten on February 11. The boy died on March 3.
Relatives said the student was hit on the back of the head, suffering injuries that led to his death.
The prosecution requested the case be closed. Magistrate Mutahi directed that Ogola's file be closed and ordered the release of Wanyonyi.
Teachers jammed the Bungoma law courts and burst into celebration after the magistrate delivered his verdict.
Kuppet executive secretary Bungoma branch Augustine Luketelo praised the decision, saying the case had struck fear among teachers.
“We want to tell the TSC that we are parents and no teacher would want to kill a student while administering discipline,” he said
Luketelo said teachers need protection by the government employer and should not be on the receiving end every time they have issues with students.
He pointed out that a teacher was killed in Nakuru by a student and nothing has been done to date.
He said such incidents make teachers fear to carry out their duties.
