Nandi Form One pupil who died was punished for exam cheating - police

Teaching was paralysed at Chemase Secondary School in Nandi County on Monday, following the death of a student after alleged corporal punishment by two teachers.

The deceased, Kelvin Kiptanui, 16, died while being attended to by doctors at Nandi-Hills Level 4 hospitals a day after the punishment.

According to the county police commander Joseph Kavoo, the two teachers are under investigation after allegedly punishing the pupil for cheating in internal exams.

“The beating and related punitive measures are reported to have been as a result of allegedly copying answers from a textbook for a physics examination,” Kavoo said.

The hospital claimed that when the student was taken to the facility they were not informed that he had been 'tortured.'

“We took blood and urine samples for Malaria and other ailments which turned out negative only to learn later that he had been beaten at school,"  a medical officer told the star.

The body is at Nandi Hills Level 4 hospital mortuary for preservation.

Human rights organisations, Centre for human rights and democracy (CHRD) director Kipkorir Ng’etich called for a thorough investigation into the death of the student.

Ng’etich called on the authorities to allow the chief government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor and the Independent Medical Unit (IMLU) to carry out the postmortem on the body of the deceased.

“The deceased mother will not get justice if the cause of death of his son is not properly investigated as there are plans to cover up the two teachers who tortured Kelvin,” Ng’etich said.

Nandi human rights consortium led by the Rev Simeon Nyoros called for proper preservation of Kelvin's body until the government and independent pathologists were dispatched.