Pregnant GSU recruits thrown out of Embakasi college

By HUDSON GUMBIHI
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Beatrice (not her real name) was eagerly waiting for the forthcoming passing out parade when she couldfi nally be declared a full police offi cer.

But the graduation dream slated for the end of February has been shattered, maybe forever because she is not sure whether she will return to the General Service Unit (GSU) Training School in Embakasi again.

Beatrice is among three female recruits kicked out of the training school on December 30 after they were found to be pregnant.They were in their eleventh month of training.

Among the three, Beatrice sounds the hardest hit by the decision to expel them. To her, the world has crushed, killing her ambition of serving her country as a police offi -cer.

“I am shocked, the decision was not fair considering that we were only left with two months and the only important event on the training calendar was the parade. We had covered everything, the pregnancy could not make any difference,” said the former recruit.

She and her colleagues were carrying pregnancies of varied periods.

After the routine medical tests proved they were expectant, the three women were given marching orders by the offi cer in charge of training.

The officer was however unwilling to discuss the matter, after admitting that the girls had receiveddismissal letters. Officer in charge of the training school Titus Muvea was equally mute, preferring police headquarters to answer our queries.

A caveat that the girls would be considered for re-admission during the next recruitment accompanied the expulsion.

Not ready to disclose the man responsible for her woes, Beatrice nevertheless said she was certain that she conceived while outside the training school.

“Whether I was impregnated by a fellow recruit or police officer is not important, but what I know, it never happened inside the training school,” she told The Nairobian.

The three recruits were among a group undergoing the field craft and range training in Magadi where they had been for the last six months. The other group of about 1,900 recruits remained in Embakasi.

The pregnancies were discovered three days before they could complete the rigorous drills and return to Embakasi.

“I had done everything. There was nothing that I was unable to do even in my condition. I know of colleagues who could not endure the drills,” said Beatrice who was in Group A of Magadi. The other was Group B of Embakasi.

The girls claimed in separate interviews that between seven and 15 recruits were expectant. Beatrice said she heard rumours that they were 15, wondering why the axe fell only on the three of them.

One of the other two women claimed they were seven. “The other four were spared but we were unlucky. But for me I don’t regret because being pregnant is not a sin. I have achieved what I wanted, the training, skills and a letter,” she said.

Optimistic former recruit

She said she harbours no ill feelings against his former GSU seniors because it was a fault of her own making to get pregnant.

“When we were recruited, all the rules were well spelt to us, and this happens in all the organisation, so they acted based on those rules,” said the optimistic former recruit. The third recruit said she needs time to come to terms with the turn of events. “I wish they could have been fair. It isn’t good to send us home when we had literally finished everything. What do you expect of a trained jobless officer? Personally, I may choose to uphold my integrity or not,” she said.

The ex-recruits did not want their identities disclosed for fear of facing ridicule from relatives, friends and the public.

“I don’t even want my parents to know for now because they may take it positively or negatively,” said one of them.

Police spokeswoman Zipporah Mboroki who initially doubted the pregnancy story, saying it could not be possible