About ten teachers were arrested and later released this morning as they sought an audience with senior management of Teachers Service Commission (TSC) at its Upper Hill Headquarters, Nairobi.
They were detained at Capitol Hill Police Post and released this afternoon after spending a better part of the morning in police custody.
The teachers are among those interdicted by their employer for seeking transfer from the terrorist-prone North Eastern region.
They were arrested at the Commission headquarters after a series of push and pull between them and the police who lobbed tear gas in an attempt to disperse and deny them access to the Commission offices.
One female teacher was injured and rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) for treatment and later discharged this afternoon.
The teachers had assembled at the Commission offices to submit their responses to their interdiction letters they were served by the Commission last month, with some fearing that already the 21 day period given to file their complaints was fast elapsing.
Some of the teachers who spoke to Education News expressed anger, frustration and suffering at the hostile manner in which they were received at the Commission.
“We have been camping here for some time. We had resolved these issues but when we were at home they sent us interdiction letters. Today we only came to first file a response and then meet the parties to the confusion so that we know why we were interdicted,” said one Charles Achol.
He wondered why the police were set on them when they were not in a demonstration, not even a peaceful one.
“They are accusing us that we have breached the law, demonstrating, and then the police have just started fighting us! As we are speaking one madam has been rushed to the hospital because of police brutality,” he added.
Geoffrey Kipng’eno said their intention was just to file their defence after the interdiction letters were served and find out why some (letters) were even backdated.
“We are not fighting…we are very peaceful, yet we have been received with full force from the police and we are asking; why this? Why are they allowing other teachers into the TSC’s main offices while we from North Eastern are blocked at the gate?” wondered an irked Kipng’eno.
Peter Cheroben on his part stated that they are at the Commission headquarters because they have not been transferred as per their agreement with TSC and the National Assembly’s Education Committee.
“We are not going back to North Eastern and we are asking other stakeholders to support us in this because we are not ready to die,” posed Cheroben.
Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association (KETHAWA) National Secretary Wangonya Wangenye condemned the arrests, saying it was tragic that teachers are subjected to such treatment even after being interdicted.
In any case, he said, demonstrating is a constitutional right.
By Roy Hezron
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