The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has raised alarm after a second high school teacher succumbed to Covid-19 complications at a Nakuru hospital.
Leah Chelagat Kulei, a teacher from Olmarai Secondary School in Mogotio, succumbed after she complained of breathing difficulties just days after the Tononoka Principal passed on.
KUPPET has since raised an alarm after the two deaths, urging the government to shut down schools.
"My concern is to the government, how many teachers should lose their lives? how many teachers should be confirmed coronavirus positive so that the government can respond?
"My main concern is; does the government have any concern for the teacher? I'm urging the government in the strongest terms possible to know that our lives are at stake," a KUPPET official in Baringo county stated.
A teacher from Kabarnet High School Japhet Kirui reiterated the official's words saying that the situation in his school was worse after a number of teachers and students contracted the disease.
Japhet has since urged the government to shut down schools saying that the government was gambling with teacher's lives.
"We are telling the government, kindly take our lives seriously, aside from the BBI politics, take the lives of Kenyans seriously. Let you not be that CS to go down in history as one who took a generation of a whole country down because of recklessness and carelessness," the principal stated.
As of October 28, 2020, Education Principal Secretary Dr. Belio Kipsang announced that 17 students and 33 teachers had tested positive for COVID-19 since schools reopened two weeks ago.
“We are not about to close schools unless advised by the Ministry of Health, but we are putting our heads together to work our modalities of reopening other classes,” Kipsang stated.
His words were reiterated by Health CS Mutahi Kagwe who stated shutting down of schools would be looked at on a case by case basis.
"Instead of closing the entire school fraternity, you close the school that has been affected. That instead of closing the eateries, you close the ones that are not following the rules so that we can still be able to salvage the economy," he stated.
