School to remain shut for four days after pupils attacked their teachers

Kirimon Primary School in Samburu West constituency will remain closed for the next four days.

The decision was jointly arrived at after the school's management board, parents and Kenya Union of Teachers (Knut) held a six-hour closed-door meeting in the school on Monday.

The county's Knut Secretary General Raphael Leshalote condemned the attack on the teachers by the pupils.

"The school will remain closed until Friday as all the stakeholders from the ministry of education, teacher's service commission, teachers union, parents and the school's management board meet to give the way forward," said Leshalote.

Stiff Lengole, one of the board members, urged teachers to remain calm as the issue is  addressed once and for all.

"We ask our teachers to remain calm as we try to look for a way to solve this problem. If it is these boys we will find a way of handling them because some children want to learn and their parents want their children to have education," said Mr Lengole.

The pupils attacked and injured two female teachers during a demonstration on Monday. They were protesting against alleged harassment of boys by female teachers.

The pupils were demonstrating for the third time over the same issue.

A section of parents called upon the teachers to try and understand cultural issues in the area.

"This is the third time such a thing is happening in this school. The ministry should investigate the root cause of the problem but we believe that there has been some cultural misunderstanding," said a parent.

They said that it is against Samburu culture to punish boys in front of girls.

"It is not right to parade a moran in front of girls and start caning him. Morans are very short tempered and these teachers should understand that," said another parent. [Martin Njiru]