A group of petitioners has filed a case in court to challenge the Ministry of Education’s directive to relocate students from Moi Teachers College–Baringo Seretunin to Talai Secondary School.
They argue the move is unconstitutional, disruptive, and will cause irreparable harm to learners and staff.
In a certificate of urgency filed by Advocate Rutto Edwin Yator of Yator and Associates Advocates, the petitioners — Godfrey Rotich, Kaplelach Lavenda Jelagat, Kipiyego Kigen Gideon, and Chesang Florence — contend that “the respondents are using administrative fiat to relocate the students of Moi Teachers College forcefully–Baringo Seretunin to Talai Secondary School in a bid to implement the impugned Legal Notice dated June 13 2025, seeking to establish Kabarnet University.”
They further claim that on June 13, 2025, “the 1st Respondent, while exercising his mandate as the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Published Gazette Notice dated June 13 2025, establishing a university to be known as Kabarnet University.”
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According to the petition, the decision announced during the 29th Graduation Ceremony on July 31, 2025, by the Cabinet Secretary, instructed “a verbal directive to all the students, teachers and parents to relocate the learners from Moi Teachers College–Baringo Seretunin to Talai Secondary School within 14 days to pave way for admission of 1,400 Baringo university students.”
The petitioners maintain that such action “purports to displace over 1000 learners, teaching staff and support staff of Moi Teachers College–Baringo, an act which is ultra vires and offends constitutional principles of governance enshrined in article 10, 43, 47 and 232 of the Constitution of Kenya.”
They warn that “the immediate displacement shall result in the involuntary withdrawal of the petitioners from the ongoing academic programs since the alternative institution, which is a secondary school, lacks equivalent services or educational infrastructure of a Teachers Training College.”
Additionally, the petitioners accuse the Ministry of failing to plan adequately for the move, noting that “the Ministry of Education failed to issue an official communication to both the learners and staff of Moi Teachers College–Baringo on the transitional procedure and timelines to enable them to prepare adequately.”
They also point out inconsistencies in the government’s relocation plan, arguing that “the public statements made by the Cabinet Secretary on July 31 2025, at the 29th Graduation Ceremony in Moi Teachers College–Baringo, asserting the relocation plan yet no official relocation framework or gazette notice published to that effect is unlawful.”
The court has been asked to issue conservatory orders halting the relocation, with the petitioners stressing that “unless this Honourable Court intervenes forthwith by granting urgent conservatory relief, the relocation will cause irreparable academic disruption, emotional distress, and social displacement to learners and staff.”
By Joseph Mambili
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