NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 21 – Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaiserry has asked teachers to resume duties in Mandera schools assuring that the security has been beefed up.
Nkaissery said the government has instituted a raft of security measures in the affected areas and that all public transport vehicles to Wajir, Mandera and Garissa will be given armed escort.
“I want to encourage and request the teachers just to be brave enough like all the citizens in Mandera, and go back and perform their duties because there is security and we shall provide security for them,” Nkaiserry said.
At least 1,500 teachers have been staging a sit-in at the Teachers Service Commission offices in Nairobi since Monday demanding transfer or interdiction letters due the rising insecurity caused by the Al-Shabaab militia.
“We are working on a strategy on how to secure this country not just Mandera and I have put a detailed strategy in place which you don’t expect me to tell you, but we are going to ensure every citizen is secure,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Seven teachers were among 28 people executed in December after Al Shabaab militants hijacked a bus in Mandera County. The militia also killed 36 miners working at a quarry.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) rejected the transfer requests to be moved out of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera due to insecurity and ordered the tutors to resume teaching by next Monday
In addition, TSC pointed out that security personnel will be posted around learning institutions and other public facilities and police patrols intensified during the day and night.
But the teachers have remained adamant saying that even if the government was to provide at least two police officers, their security is still not guaranteed because most of the schools are not fenced and the two cannot stop the militia when they attack.
The teachers’ spokesman described the situation for non-Muslim teachers in the region as volatile, and asked the employer to consider transferring them.
They said the militiamen always target non-Muslims, making them unable to effectively offer their services.