Boni forest residents say security camps ruining education

Residents of Boni have protested against the use of schools as camps for security forces who have been fighting insurgents in the county.

They said allowing soldiers and police officers to be accommodated in schools was delaying their reopening.

Local leaders Omar Ware from Basuba and Deko Barisa, who is also an early childhood education teacher, said the authorities had converted five primary schools into security camps at the expense of education.  

"We are unhappy that schools are being used in this operation as this has partly contributed to the delay in reopening these institutions and this is affecting education," said Mr Ware.

Last week, Ware and Barisa appeared before a Kenya National Commission on Human Rights inquest on the insecurity situation and said education had been adversely effected.

"Only pupils from Standard Four and Standard Eight were taken to other schools; the rest are idling," Barisa told the public inquest.

Local leaders said even though the county government had transferred some pupils to the Mokowe Arid Zone boarding school near the county headquarters, the majority were still at home.

The affected schools are Basuba, Mangai, Mararani, Milimani and Kiangwe, which represent five manyattas that make up homes of the Boni community estimated to have about 2,000 people.

The soldiers, together with other security officers, moved into the area to rid it of Al Shabaab militants following the deadly Mpeketoni terror attack in 2014 in which 60 people were shot killed.