Narok branch of KUPPET (Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers) has come to the defence of a principal who was arrested for allegedly demanding a bribe, saying it was a set-up.
Speaking to Education News this morning while at the police station where the teacher is being held, Narok Executive Secretary Charles Ng’eno who was accompanied by his chairman Samson Soit, said the principal had no money in his office at the time of arrest.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives arrested him for what they say was a demand for a Ksh50,000 bribe from suppliers, but the branch says the swoop was planned and calculated to diminish the teacher.
“The teacher was not caught with the money; he was arrested when the money was brought to the school. What do you call that? This is a set-up and we will not allow people to malign the names of our teachers. There is no way the principal demanded a bribe,” narrated Ng’eno.
According to him, the principal was attending a meeting with other principals within Narok and was called by his deputy to go back to school. Ng’eno explained that the deputy was coerced by EACC detectives to put the call on loud mode.
“In fact, it is these suppliers who normally corrupt our teachers telling them that 10 per cent is yours. Principals manage school resources. For us we read malice because why are you coming after some people demanded for his transfer? Why had you not come before? We want to tell them that we are keenly watching them,” he added.
On its official X (formerly Twitter) handle, EACC stated that it had in the afternoon arrested (name withheld), the principal of Keekonyokie Mixed Day in Narok County after he solicited a bribe of Ksh50,000 from a school supplier for him to release his Ksh410,000 cheque.
EACC claims that the arrest came after the supplier refused to succumb to the bribe demand and instead notified EACC, which immediately mounted an operation that apprehended him after pocketing Ksh40,000 as part payment.
“Cases of this nature are common in schools where some principals embezzle school funds placed under their care, sometimes in collusion with private persons, including corrupt suppliers who draw money from schools without supplying anything,” said EACC in a statement.
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