The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has strongly condemned the heinous killing of its teachers stationed at Kamuthe Primary School in Garissa by suspected Al-Shabaab militants. At the same time the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) threatened to mobilise tutors to leave insecure schools and regions.
TSC assured teachers across the country that it was working closely with security agencies to maintain safety and restore normalcy to the school and its environs.
Three teachers — Caleb Mutua, Samuel Mutua and Titus Sasieka Mushindi — were killed in a pre-dawn terror attack on Monday that police say was targeted at a Safaricom communications mast and a police camp in the area.
“We wish to extend our condolences to the families, friends, pupils and colleagues of the three teachers and wish quick recovery to those injured in the attack,” the Commission said in a statement last evening.
The teachers’ lobby, Knut, asked the Ministry of Education to convene an urgent meeting to discuss teachers’ security following the attack.
“The Ministry must discuss the security of teachers and students in our institutions and assure Kenyans that schools are safe for learning …We have in the past been assured of protection and action but the killings have continued,” Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion said in a press briefing yesterday.
The union gave the warning yesterday, a day after an al Shabaab attack in Garissa left three non-local teachers dead.
Sossion also demanded that Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha convene an urgent meeting with stakeholders to discuss deteriorating security in the region.
“We hereby write to request you to urgently convene a meeting between the Kenya National Union of Teachers, the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission to discuss the emerging trend of insecurity of teachers, which is threatening to dismantle the morale of the teaching force,” Sossion said.
Sossion said should the CS refuse to convene the meeting, the union will be forced to a mobilise mass pullout of teachers from any other insecure area across the country.
The union also threatened a nationwide teachers’ demonstrations to condemn the barbaric acts meted on teachers.
Knut has already communicated to the CS in a letter dated yesterday.