Talarus Chesang
About 10,000 children from the Pokot pastoralist community in Tiaty, Baringo County, are out of school, an education official has disclosed.
The vast region is recording the highest illiteracy levels currently standing at a combined 75 per cent in both Tiaty West and Tiaty East sub-counties.
“At least 10,000 school-age children, both boys and girls from the two sub-counties are not accounted for,” the education officer said.
The official, who sought anonymity for fear of victimization, said a low of 13,800 children in total attend school across the 80 primary schools, “while the case is even worse for the seven secondary school”.
He cited Loiwat Secondary in Tiaty West which now stares at closure due to total lack of students.
He attributed the low turnout to ‘rooted culture’, which he termed a big concern and cause of the high school dropout.
The sub-county is infamous for the retrogressive practices of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), early marriages, banditry and cattle rustling.
“A boy as young as 14 years goes through early training to become a warrior, goes out to steal people’s livestock, then comes back immediately to marry a circumcised teen girl,” he related.
Presently, hundreds of teenage girls are out of school undergoing FGM secretly in undisclosed thickets, despite it being banned by the government.
After they graduate from their three-month traditional training, their parents will immediately by default prepare to marry them off and become young mothers.
Among the worst hit areas are Paka, Riongo, Chepkang’ar-met, Silale, Toplen, Amaya, Akwichatis, Kapaw, Kongor, Rotu, Lokis and Ngaina.
The cause of low enrollment also is the nomadic nature of the community, where families are forced to constantly migrate looking for water and pasture for their livestock, especially during drought seasons.
Other reasons are inadequate boarding facilities, child labour, inheritance of family wealth and presumed community defence.
A few days ago, county commissioner Abdirisak Jaldesa said the awareness programme requires a multi-sectoral approach to reach the entire expansive region.
“Tiaty is a wide area and it calls for state and non-state actors to concert efforts for education to take root and bring civilization to this place,” he said.
Jaldesa further warned those upholding the illicit practices of FGM, banditry and cattle rustling, saying the government was watching and ready to take stern action.
“We have directed the chiefs to identify and report the notorious individuals organizing banditry, and those circumcising and marrying off young girls,” he said.
He was addressing a meeting organized by the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) at Kampi ya Samaki in Baringo North.
