Report: Almost half of teachers guilty of physical abuse

Teachers are most likely to be perpetrators of physical violence, a study has revealed.

The 2014 Demographic and Health Survey launched last week found almost 48 per cent of people who report incidents of physical abuse link it to their teachers.

The survey, conducted by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and other stakeholders between May and October 2014, reports that while most married people are most likely to be physically abused by their spouses, unmarried people point at teachers when it comes to those who abuse them physically.

The study also found step-parents coming close to teachers when it comes to physical abuse among children.

The report found 40 per cent of those abused suffer in the hands of their stepmothers, while 19 per cent were abused by their step-fathers.

Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said they plan to use the findings to implement policies and do better planning towards Vision 2030.

"The findings of this survey come in handy at this time to help various programmes and project managers at all levels to plan using quality data," he said Kiunjuri during the launch.

Health Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri said the survey had given them indicators on areas that needed improvement, and they would use them as a benchmark for improvement.

Monica Auma Ogoti, whom The Standard interviewed, looks back at her life in primary school and says she is still traumatised at the kind of abuse she went through at the hands of her mathematics teacher.

"Waking up every day was a chore, because our mathematics teacher would whip us for any small mistake we did," she said.

She said one event was forever etched in her mind. Her teacher beat her up over unfinished assignments yet she had spent an entire week in a hospital ward. Ms Ogoti said her parents helped her recover from the abuse.