Mandera attack teachers not our employees, says TSC

Teachers quarters that were gutted during a suspected Al-Shabaab attack at Arabia Boys Secondary School. PHOTO | MANASE OTSIALO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Two slain teachers were hired by the school's Board of Management, says TSC
  • According to director, non-local teachers were transferred
  • However, he says there those who chose to remain the areas

Two teachers killed in Mandera during a suspected Al-Shabaab raid were not employees of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). 

Mandera County TSC Director Ahmed Jimale said the two slain teachers were hired by Arabia Boys Secondary School's Board of Management. 

“We regret what happened to teachers at Arabia Boys Secondary school on Wednesday night, but I want to state that those were not our employees,” he said. 

SAFER AREAS

Mr Jimale said TSC had moved all the non-local teachers from terror hotspots in Mandera to safer grounds as directed by the Nairobi office in February. “As we speak, none is teaching in such like areas,” he said. 

According to Mr Jimale, a total 108 non-local teachers in secondary and primary schools were transferred at the time. “Despite the directive to move them to safer areas, some non-local teachers declined and through writing and wished to be left such areas,” he said, adding that those asking to stay were satisfied with the local community guarding them. 

A total of 18 teachers wrote to TSC wanting to be retained in the areas. “We accepted 10 requests out of 18 who are in Lafey Sub-County, but we declined those who wanted to be returned in the Arabia zone,” he said. 

The ill-fated Arabia Boys Secondary School had four non-local teachers at the time of the attack.

CONFIRMATION LETTERS

Mr Jimale said the four teachers and any other found in schools along the notorious Kenya-Somalia border were under respective schools' boards of management. 

Despite TSC's statement, the two teachers who survived said they had been posted to Arabia and were waiting for confirmation letters from Nairobi. 

Mr Elija Nderitu and Mr Kelvin Lumosi, the survivors of the attack, were only a month old at the school.

When asked, Mr Jimale said until a teacher gets an appointment letter from TSC headquarters, he or she remains an employee of the board. 

“Some of these teachers filled some forms, but their appointment letters are yet to come from Nairobi. Once we get the letters we planned not to have them in that school,” he said.