Teachers living in the terror-prone Northeastern region will be withdrawn if the government does not act, the Kenya National Union of Teachers has said.
The union gave the warning yesterday, a day after an al Shabaab attack in Garissa left three non-local teachers dead.
Union secretary general Wilson Sossion demanded that Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha convene an urgent meeting with stakeholders to discuss deteriorating security in the region.
“We hereby write to request you to urgently convene a meeting between the Kenya National Union of Teachers, the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission to discuss the emerging trend of insecurity of teachers, which is threatening to dismantle the morale of the teaching force,” Sossion said.
Sossion said should the CS refuse to convene the meeting, the union will be forced to a mobilise mass pullout of teachers from any other insecure area across the country.
The union also threatened a nationwide teachers' demonstrations to condemn the barbaric acts meted on teachers.
Knut has already communicated to the CS in a letter dated yesterday.
Sossion, however, insisted that if teachers in the affected areas feel they are unsafe, they should leave immediately to save their lives.
"We are telling teachers that no one will protect you apart from yourselves. An injury to one is an injury to all," Sossion said.
He also demanded that the government second armed security personnel to all boarding schools to man the institutions.
Garissa County Director of Education Khalif Isack said the three teachers were killed by the militants at 1.30am.
According to Sossion, the teachers have been identified as Caleb Mutua, Samuel Mutua – all from Makueni county- and Titus Mushindi from Kakamega county.
He also condemned the recent killing of a teacher in Kitui over an alleged poor performance in last year’s KCPE exams.
“A number of parents have invaded various primary and secondary schools to evict headteachers protesting poor performance in the schools in KCPE/KCSE.
“This is not only a bad practice but it is setting a precedence of a culture of demeaning and attacking the teaching profession if not dealt with exhaustively and criminalised,” he said.
