A form three student at Sambut Mixed Secondary School in Uasin Gichu is nursing injuries sustained from corporal punishment which the school's management has justified, with the teachers claiming the girl was stripping in class.
“There are whip marks on her body. The nature of the injury is ‘harm’,” reads a medical report by Douglas Momanyi, a medical officer at Turbo Sub County Hospital.
Corporal punishment was banned in the country but Education CS Magoha last month championed for the reintroduction of caning in schools
The girl who can barely sit is not able to sleep on her back and can hardly walk. She has complained of excruciating pain.
“I can barely sit due to the pain on my back. I have to lie down on my stomach and can only lean on the left thigh as the right side was targeted during the beating,” said the girl
According to the Standard, her grandmother was disappointed by the teachers' cause of action.
“As a parent, I am not against caning a student as a remedy for indiscipline but when you injure the child it is not correcting anymore. The teachers have been so rude even mocking me that they will bail themselves out,” She said.
“But when the child was brought home I was shocked because she could not walk on her own. I called back the teacher and asked him if I will come to school or take the child for treatment but he hang up on me,” she added.
The girl is said to have been beaten by three teachers after she was caught in what the teachers claimed was indiscipline.
A class teacher who took part in punishing the girl confirmed that he was acting within his rights.
“They were stripping and dancing in class and we caned them as a form of punishment. They are an unruly lot who have been giving us a lot of indiscipline issues,” said the teacher.
The school headmistress Winnie Mibey said she was not aware of the incident as she was not in school on that particular day.
"What the teachers did is wrong. We do not tolerate it and we shall follow the case," said Winnie.
Section 191 (2) of the Children's Act dictates that no child offender shall be subjected to corporal punishment.
