Kenya Union of Post Primary Education (KUPPET) teachers from West Pokot have threatened to down tools if three teachers captured in the Chesegon area by a multi-agency security team are not released.
This comes as security agencies suspend peace committee meetings and order the criminals in the Kerio Valley to surrender their arms following a fresh wave of killings in the region.
According to KUPPET, the three teachers were arrested by the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) officers while entering the school gate. The three teachers from Arpollo Mixed Day and Boarding Primary School and Cheptulel Girls are yet to be seen after their arrest.
“These are teachers who are arrested at the school gate, armed only with a chalk and a pen. And we are wondering, the same president last month commissioned and instructed TSC to employ 100 teachers so that the schools around the border can be opened. Those schools, the teachers who are employed by TSC, I think two weeks ago, and they have been posted to school,” said Danson LKomeiyan, Kuppet Treasurer, West Pokot.
He added, “Now the KDF, instead of strengthening the work of the president, who has ensured that teachers are available in those border areas so that schools are open, is now arresting the teachers.”
Kuppet has now asked its members to report to their office to receive the new directions. “We as teachers of West Pokot are instructing our members to immediately report to the Kuppet office and withdraw their service from the school, not only in Cheptulel Girls but also in Cheptulel Boys and other insecurity schools within West Pokot County,” Joel Fogokor Kuppet Chairperson, West Pokot, announced.
All this comes as tensions in the Kerio Valley reach a new boiling point. On Saturday, Deputy Inspector General of Police Elud Lagat said a new operation had commenced in the area after close to 10 people lost their lives in the last few weeks.
The 10 include eight people, including two primary school people, who have lost their lives in banditry-related attacks in the Baringo and Elgeyo Marakwet counties.
In 2023, when the government mounted another operation in the troubled region, President Ruto said the government would be ruthless with the bandits.
“We will be ruthless in stamping out banditry. We will neutralise every bandit who defies the government and attempts any criminal act,” he said.
He insisted that every bandit would be held to account. “Every illegal gun must surrendered willingly or by force; every child must go back to school.”
Two years later, the same problem has raised its head again.
