Senator dismisses Matiang'i's directive over school unrest

Nyamira Senator Kennedy Mong'are addresses reporters at Parliament on June 28, 2016. PHOTO | JEREMIAH KIPLANG'AT | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The lawmaker said roadside directives that include asking parents to pay for damage cause by students are not implementable as they do not have any protection of the law.
  • Addressing journalists in Parliament, Mr Mong'are, whose county neighbours Kisii, where a spate of unrest has been reported recently, said it was wrong to punish parents for the misbehaviour of teenage student.

Nyamira Senator Kennedy Mong'are has dismissed Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i's new directives to stop ongoing unrest in secondary schools.

The lawmaker said roadside directives that include asking parents to pay for damage cause by students are not implementable as they do not have any protection of the law.

Addressing journalists in Parliament, Mr Mong'are, whose county neighbours Kisii, where a spate of unrest has been reported recently, said it was wrong to punish parents for the misbehaviour of teenage students.

"I disagree with (the) pedestrian and roadside measures undertaken by the Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i without grounding his action on any known study or committee recommendations," he said.

The CS has already directed that parents be asked to pay for the destruction students cause in their schools when they go on the rampage.

While visiting Itierio Boys High School in Kisii County, where angry students set their dormitories ablaze after being barred from watching a football match last weekend, Dr Matiang'i said no one else would pay for the damage other than the parents.

EXPELLED STUDENTS

He also directed schools not to admit students expelled from others for leading unrest without permission from the county education officer.

"The decision to penalise parents for the deeds of their children, who, for instance, may have been compromised by other incidental factors like peer pressure, drug abuse, vagaries of teenagehood and mob psychology, is not acceptable," Mr Mong'are added.

Other schools that have reported unrest are Nyamache Boys High School in Kisii County, and Kericho High and Tengecha High in Kericho County. Others are Kaplong Boys, K.Salat Secondary School and Longisa High in Bomet County.

The lawmaker urged the CS to form a committee to look into school unrest and suggest proper ways to deal with it.

He also proposed that students found guilty of leading or perpetrating strikes should be taken to approved schools to continue their learning there and then eventually to the National Youth Service in a bid to rehabilitate them.