Kirimon Primary School in Samburu West constituency will remain closed for four days until Friday after schoolboys beat up and injured two female teachers for caning them in front of girls.
On Monday, the school board, parents and Kenya National Union of Teachers officials held a six-hour closed door meeting at the school and decided to close the school for four days from yesterday. Classes should resume next Monday.
Knut branch secretary general Raphael Leshalote condemned the pupils’ attack and said education stakeholders have until Friday to hold talks and find a solution.
Board member Stiff Lengole urged teachers to remain calm as the issue is addressed.
“We will find a way of handling them because some children want to learn and their parents want their children to have education,” he said.
Respect the culture
Some parents asked the teachers to understand their culture.
“This is the third time such is happening in this school. The ministry should investigate the root cause of the problem. But we believe that there has been some cultural misunderstanding,” a parent said.
It is against Samburu culture to punish boys in front of girls and female teachers should respect their culture.
Morans are not humiliated
“It is not right to parade a moran in front of girls and start caning him. Morans are very short-tempered and the teachers should understand that,” another parent said.
Parents urged the school management to work with the community and involve them in their decision-making meetings.
They said the school never holds teachers, parents and pupils’ meetings where such issues can be raised and solutions reached before such attacks occur.
On Monday, the boys went to school with rungus and pangas and when one of the targetted teachers entered the standard six classroom, they attacked and injured her.
Other teachers came to her rescue and they were also attacked, but the boys had a grudge with two female teachers.
The pupils said their culture does not allow them to be caned in front of girls and they accused the teachers of humiliating and harassing them.
This is the third protest boys in the school have had over the issue. They also protested in 2007 and in 2013.