The Education stakeholders in Murang’a have vowed to collaborate to avert school unrest and insecurity.
Speaking during a consultative meeting at Technology primary school in Murang’a town, the County Commissioner (CC), Patrick Mukuria said that early detection and prevention was paramount in containing unrest and insecurity in schools.
The CC who was chairing the meeting, told the school principals drawn from the various secondary schools in the county to immediately report any incident to the security officers once they detect it was a threat to the school community.
“Principals have to give us information for the security team to act,” said Mukuria, adding that early detection of such incidents will enable the security team and the relevant stakeholders to intervene and prevent the unrest or insecurity in schools.
The CC observed that sometimes before even unrest or a riot happens, there are those early warnings that shouldn’t be ignored because if we nip them in the bud, we shall prevent the rising cases of unrest in schools and guarantee the safety of all learners.
“Principals should be in a position to detect these early signs of unrest and insecurity like pupils acting out of their usual character among others” he said adding the Ministry of Education has given schools clear guidance on how to handle cases of mass indiscipline.
Mukuria said that with the abolishment of corporal punishment in disciplining students, the government is embarking and emphasizing on counseling as a way of preventing the rising cases of school unrest.
Murang’a County Director for Education Anne Kiilu on her part said that so far in the county, they have had one case of unrest reported since the beginning of this year and that through consultative meetings they will work out to ensure that there will be no more unrest.
“The last time we had serious unrest, we had one or two primary schools that were affected but generally the effects of unrest and insecurity are felt in secondary schools,” said Kiilu adding that the county has over 300 secondary schools with the enrolment ranging from 2,000 to 2,500 pupils and all those schools can be affected.
She called on all stakeholders to play their part well and the principal’s to ensure that school property is well protected.
“The government is concerned about the increasing cases of unrest and arson witnessed in a number of secondary schools in the country that have led to wanton destruction of property which the government will not allow to continue,” she said.
Murang’a County Police Commander David Mathiu said that they are committed as the security team to fight unrest and insecurity in schools and that it is the responsibility of national police officers to protect the lives and properties of its people.
“In case there is any detection of unrest or insecurity in our schools, we shall avail ourselves to make sure that everything normalizes,” he said adding that the police force will ensure that there is safety in the schools so that learning is not affected.
He lauded the efforts that have been put by some of the Principals’ to make sure that they have engaged the police at some point where they felt they needed support from them.
By Anita Omwenga
