Knut issues threat as three teachers die in terror attack
Zadock Angira, Hillary Mageka and KNA
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has threatened to mobilise teachers to vacate insecure schools and regions because of terror attacks targeting members.
Addressing the press at Parliament Buildings on Monday, Secretary General Wilson Sossion said though teachers have been promised protection from attacks, the killings have continued.
Sossion was reacting to last night’s killing of three teachers by suspected al-Shabaab militants who stormed staff quarters of Kamuthe Primary, about 50 kilometres from Garissa town in Fafi sub-county.
“As a union we will have no choice but to urge teachers who feel insecure to promptly vacate these areas without any further delay to save their lives,” said Sossion.
“Sanctity of life and right to life is paramount and a constitutional right,” he added.
Sossion, who is a Nominated MP, said the killing of three teachers was unfortunate.
“Their killings adds to the list of non-local teachers who have been killed in the (North Eastern) region,” he observed.
The terrorists also attacked a police post and a Safaricom mast
In Garissa there was panic among teachers fraternity following the 1am attacks.
The incident comes barely a week after militants shot and killed four pupils of Saretho Primary School in Dadaab sub-county.
Teachers withdrawn
Following the incident, the county education board, through the county director of education Issack Khalif, has withdrawn all non-local’s teachers from the two sub counties.
The terrorists who murdered the three teachers spared the lives of three female teachers and a nurse who were sleeping just few metres from where the teachers were killed.
One of the lucky survivors, Ann Gideon, said the militants knocked the doors and asked if they had children.
“When we replied yes, they just walked away saying they were not interested in us. I almost collapsed when they turned their backs on us. God spared our lives but we really saddened by the deaths of our colleagues,” Gideon said.
Citing last week’s murder of a teacher in Kitui county, Sossion also criticised the invasion of schools and attacks on teachers by parents protesting poor examination results.
“Ambushing, killing and burning to ashes of Daisy Mbathe Mbaluka of Ndooni Primary School in Endau Zone of Kitui East Constituency on January 6th, 2020 is one of the most barbaric attacks that a community and parents can engage in for whatever reasons,” the Knut SG noted.
