No lust chance for sex pests disguised as teachers

In his famous, if controversial, 1960s song, Ndari ya Mwalimu (the teacher’s darling), musician Joseph Kamaru belts out the disturbing chorus: "Slow down teacher you have come too much".

We invoked Kamaru’s in-your-face lyrics a week after this column was launched in 2008, when a reader expressed disgust at rampant sex pests hiding behind the teaching profession (Randy teachers must face full force of the law, July 16).

Since then, this issue has firmly remained in PointBlank’s agenda, most recently on April 13 (Put sex pests to the test). We consider it an unimaginable betrayal of trust for amorous teachers to misdirect their perverted desires towards learners.

Where minors are involved, these individuals’ actions are evidently criminal. But they often get away with lenient ‘disciplinary’ steps like transfers or interdictions.

It is, therefore, good news that after years of shilly-shallying, the Teachers Service Commission has issued new strict rules that, if well implemented, may not give predatory teachers a lust chance to sexually abuse learners.