Knut directs teachers working in North Eastern to return home

Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary-General Wilson Sossion on November 23, 2014. The strike is symptomatic of more fundamental challenges bedevilling the education sector. The first challenge is the type and quality of education offered to our children. PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI |

What you need to know:

  • Mr Sossion instructed the teachers to register at their respective Teachers Service Commission home branches and await fresh deployment.
  • He condemned the attack and put the government on the spot over rising insecurity.

Teachers working in North Eastern have been asked not to return to work following the killing of 28 people by Al-Shabaab militants.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers on Sunday instructed their members who are not residents but based in Mandera, Moyale, Marsabit, Turkana, and other unsafe areas to relocate to their home counties over rising insecurity.

Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion said: “We are directing all our teachers who are not residents of these insecure parts of the country not to go back. If you are there, go back to your home counties. Keep off those regions.”

Mr Sossion instructed the teachers to register at their respective Teachers Service Commission home branches and await fresh deployment.

He was speaking at Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi where he along with other union officials had gone to console the families of victims of Saturday morning's attack.

The attack claimed 28 lives, 19 men and nine women. According to Knut, of those killed, 24 were teachers.

Mr Sossion demanded full compensation for the families and costs of funeral arrangements to be covered by the government.

“We cannot watch as teachers die; it is very expensive to train a teacher and then take a few seconds for trigger happy hooligans and militias to kill them. We will not allow any more teachers to be butchered again,” said Mr Sossion.

He condemned the attack and put the government on the spot over rising insecurity.

“What is our security machinery doing? The security authorities must wake up. We have waited but now our patience has run out.”