Safety ignored as teachers push pupils to demonstrate

Langata Road Primary School pupils are teargassed by police during their demo against alleged grabbing of their playground on January 16, 2015. [File, Standard]

The Government reaction was immediate. Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero rushed to calm the pupils of St Annes Primary School who had blocked the busy Jogoo Road for hours after a volunteer who helps them cross was hit by a matatu.

“I want to say I am very sorry to our children who are here because you are the most important part of our society. Your welfare and safety is important to all of us,” Dr Matiang’i apologised to the enraged pupils two weeks ago.

Efforts by the police or their headteacher to quell the protests had failed, leading to a traffic snarl-up whose ripple effects brought Nairobi to a near-standstill.

“We want bumps, we want bumps,” they sang and drew the same message on the road. Three hours later, workers were deployed to erect bumps next to the school. The protest had achieved its purpose but on its trail a debate on the wave of primary school children taking to the streets that is gaining a foothold in Kenya.

While some argue that organisers of protests use schoolchildren to gain attention, those in support say they are entitled to fight for their rights.

Makadara Deputy County Commissioner Fredrick Ndunga who is in charge of the region where the latest protests took place, warns parents against using their children to protest.

“We agree there is a problem but we cannot solve it by sitting on the road,” he says.

However, activist-turned-politician Boniface Mwangi says when you see children taking to the streets it means adults have failed.

“If adults fail to defend children, the children will defend themselves. An injustice was done, the children reacted,” he says.

“Those kids were not in the streets asking for sweets. As a parent, my heart breaks because we are the ones who were supposed to be on the road that day protesting but since we are mentally enslaved, the kids are doing it for us.”

Though a new phenomenon in Kenya, school children protests are not entirely new on the global scene.

The most notable is Sharpeville protest of June 16, 1976 when thousands of black schoolchildren took to the streets in Soweto, South Africa, protesting the Apartheid education system that obliged them to be taught in Africaans.

They were met with police gunfire and 23 of them died. Among those who died was Hector Pieterson. The image of the dying 12-year-old being carried by a fellow student defined South Africa’s liberation struggle. It is also the reason why we have the Day of the African Child every June 16.

Thirteen years before that, thousands of black children in the US marched 16km to protest against racism. Police set dogs after the children but the event compelled President John F Kennedy to support federal civil rights legislation, which put an end to racism.

Justifiable

And while the schoolchildren’s protests seen so far in Kenya are nowhere near the two globally recognised riots, stakeholders are scrambling to figure out how to deal with the snowballing scenario.

The Kenya Parents Association (KPA) does not see a problem as so long as the cause is justifiable and parents are notified in advance.

“Remember that the pupils belong to us and not the school. If something wrong happens to a pupil during the protest, the first person the school will call is the parent. Why not notify them before the actual protest?” asks KPA chairman Nicholas Maiyo.

During the Langata Road Primary School protests in 2015, police lobbed teargas at the rioting pupils, leading to a stampede. The photo of Lucy Njeri, then 13 years old, showing her unconscious and being carried by a good Samaritan on a flyover was widely circulated in the press.

What befell her was a perfect demonstration of what could happen when a schoolchildren’s demonstration goes awry, attracting global condemnation. She spent two weeks in hospital due to the injuries she sustained.

But since the Langata Road Primary School protests where children successfully stopped the grabbing of their playground by faceless powerful individuals, the country has now witnessed three similar events.

Last month, Kenyans were alarmed when pupils of Kenyatta Golf Course Academy blocked Mbagathi Road with their desks.

Their school had been demolished due to a land dispute and they were angry.

However, what shocked many was how young children aged between five and seven stood in defiance in front of vehicles as their teachers watched, leading to a fierce online debate.

“The teachers here have gone the wrong way in addressing this issue, do not risk the lives of these kids. They should be charged,” tweeted Paul Ndinya.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) however says there is nothing wrong since demonstration is everyone’s right.

“As teachers we don’t imprison children and we can’t stop them from reacting to wrong things and right things. We teach them to judge right from wrong so when they express themselves what is the problem?” says KNUT secretary general Wilson Sossion.

“Remember demonstration is a human right. It is not assigned to any age. At Langata Road Primary School, for example, children woke up one day and found their field had been stolen, did you expect them to be cowards when their rights had been violated?” he asks.

Section 35 of the Constitution gives a right to all citizens to demonstrate, while Section 53, which outlines the rights of children, requires them to be “protected from abuse, neglect, harmful cultural practices, all forms of violence, inhuman treatment and punishment”.