Teachers in Mumias who send children out of school for fees will be arrested.
Philip Soi, the area's deputy county commissioner, warned ‘notorious teachers’ at the weekend against the act.
He said during a public baraza at Shibale that the government has allocated a lot of money towards free education.
Soi said the reason was for children to be kept in school in order for them to catch up with lessons.
“I appeal to parents and anybody who finds a child sent home for fees to report to my office so that the law can be followed to know why such child is not in school," said Soi.
He directed chiefs, their assistants as well as county ward and sub-county administrators to take stock of teachers who are fond of sending children home for fees.
“We don't want to meet school children either from primary or secondary schools on the roads. Most of them claim they have been sent home for fees against the government policy” he said.
“The administrators should also go for parents who stay home with children without sending them to school. There is no other remedy on such parents other than facing the law” he said.
He said the country cannot achieve millennium development goals - which expired in 2015 - when teachers keep children on the road from Monday to Friday in the name of collecting money from home.
"This behaviour must be a thing of the past in Mumias so that our children can achieve the goal of universal primary education,” he said.
He said the government pays tuition and teachers' salaries and there nothing else that should be demanded from parents.
The DCC also blamed school board members of colluding with principals to frustrate parents by manipulating school budgets.
He said Mumias has a poverty level of 47 per cent with most parents barely affording two meals a day.
He called on the residents to embrace farming and engage in business to reduce the level of poverty in the area.