Education CS George Magoha, on Wednesday August 19, responded to parents' threats of a lawsuit over the re-opening of schools.
Speaking during the inspection tour of Siaya Institute of Technology, the CS curtly stated that only President Uhuru Kenyatta had the powers to dictate on when schools would reopen.
“More than 100,000 schools remain closed across the country, but the decision to reopen them lies with President Uhuru, he is the one to decide whether he can take the risk,” he stated.
Parents, in a demand letter by lawyer Harrison Kinyajui, had given CS Magoha until August 18, 2020 to open schools by September 1, 2020.
Magoha however explained that schools would only re-open if adequate measures to combat the dreaded Covid-19 virus were put in place.
He also noted that protecting the children from the virus was the biggest headache the government was facing in the resumption of learning activities.
“Others who have rushed have had to walk backwards, look at South Africa and America, kids have died, over 100,000 kids got infected in the US when they reopened, we do not want that," he added while addressing the press.
The parents had accused him of discriminating against children on the basis of their age, yet adults were conducting business as usual.
They claimed that the CS had no consideration for the welfare and the best interests of Kenyan children, and was serving foreign interests.
They cited the irony that children were being allowed to attend all manner of activities including open-air markets, supermarkets, cafeterias, places of worship but not schools.
In early August, the CS had revealed that schools would re-open in January 2021 as the earliest date.
