By Amoto Dennis Ndiewo
Many have embraced the Emuhaya Member of Parliament and Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) National Chairman Omboko Milemba’s call on the government to beef up security and ensure teachers’ security in Northeastern.
However, KUPPET Secretary General Akelo Misori’s call for arming teachers was received with mixed reactions. Mr Misori is not apologetic on his proposal that teachers in the region be armed.
Recently there was a spate of attacks on non-local teachers. Reacting to such security threats, Milemba said that teachers’ security should not be taken lightly. He urged the government to offer full security to teachers on a 24/7 hour basis.
Speaking to Education News, Misori said that teachers in Northeastern are at risk and the only solution is arming them.
“The fact that these teachers are not armed makes them an easy pick for the terrorists. Kenya should act with speed and follow what is happening in other countries prone to such attacks,’’ he said.
He added that trained and armed teachers will be in a position to protect themselves from dangers. He further noted that instead of killing education system by transferring teachers, the government should arm teachers.
“All learners need qualified teachers for them to perform well in their studies,’’ he said.
However, looking at logistics, Dennis Wafula Mwebe a teacher in one of the secondary schools pointed out that it takes a long time to train a police officer in fieldwork hence a tall order for a teacher who has no time.
He said that the government should find out and explain the reason why the killings of non-locals happen to take place.
“The government had high powered investigators working on the killing of 142 non-local students of Garissa University on 2nd April 2015 but the results remained a secret,’’ said Mwebe.
According to Andy Mogoka, guns will be snatched in broad daylight. He added that giving teachers guns will be a full declaration of war.
Meanwhile, the meeting between Northeastern Members of Parliament and the Ministry of Education bore no fruits. The MPs insisted that if the MoE doesn’t return teachers then local form four leavers with lower grades should be allowed to train and replace the 3,000 teachers who were transferred.
However, the ministry said such a move will compromise and sacrifice the standards of education in an era where the P1 grade is being removed to pave way for a Diploma course.
According to Omar Mohamed, a long-serving teacher in the region, the problem of teacher shortage in Northeastern is not new. Mohamed said that even during the era of P3 training, few from the region joined teaching profession with Standard 7 Certificate of Primary Education.
“Most preferred to join military forces, the situation is yet to change,’’ said Mohamed.
Mohamed dismissed arming teachers saying it is an academic fishing expedition meant for master’s degrees thesis but not a practical solution.
He further dismissed the idea of marginalization as a pipedream if not an excuse.
Mohamed dismissed the call by the ministry of education but call on leaders to rally on the residents to tame insecurity in the region.
In the same breath, North Eastern leader of the Kamba community Kitheka Mwenda said it is unfortunate that locals seem to be aware of these attacks of elimination.
