Detectives drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, on Thursday, March 30, raided Riang’ombe Adventist Primary Boarding School in search of a teacher who allegedly caused bodily harm to a Grade 4 pupil.
However, the police officers were not able to catch the main suspect after he escaped in the wee hours of the morning.
“Unfortunately, he was able to escape the police dragnet. But we will get him, we are tracking him. He was last seen around Manga at 5am,” Nyamira County Police Commander James Mitugo explained.
Four other people were, however, arrested after they were accused of covering up the brutal flogging of the young boy.
Among them were the school head teacher, his deputy, another Grade 4 class teacher and the matron.
According to Mitugo, the school matron reportedly fetched the pipe used to whip the Grade 4 pupil 107 times as others watched helplessly.
“We gather that the teacher used a plastic pipe to whip the pupil. But we are shocked and wondering what level of force he was using because the injuries are intense,” Mitugo explained.
The culprits then moved to cover up their crime by doctoring the class attendance register to indicate that the child had been attending classes.
Pupils reportedly blew up the cover-up, confiding in the investigators that the Grade 4 learner was locked in the dormitory.
“We gathered that the child got injured on Sunday, March 26 and had since been locked in the dormitory as teachers tried to cover up the incident. The boy could neither walk nor sit,” Police Commander Mitugo explained.
He added that the head teacher and his deputy provided investigators with conflicting details on who was in charge of the institution at the time of the crime.
Stakeholders had urged the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Education CS, Ezekiel Machogu, to act.
