National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale has criticised the Teachers Service Commission’s decision to transfer non-local teachers from Northeastern to their home areas.
The TSC began transferring non-local teachers from Wajir County.
SHABAAB
This follows and Al-Shabaab attack on Qarsa Primary School on February 16, which resulted in the death of two teachers and the wife of one of the teachers.
The TSC, through a letter, directed non-local teachers from Wajir to make arrangements to report to their new stations immediately.
It gave the teachers 14 days to notify the education director of the county they were transferring to and already more than 100 teachers were reported to have transferred from the region.
“The county directors of those counties that you have been transferred to are requested to inform the headquarters of the date you report for duty so that your salary can be paid through the new station,” the TSC letter read in part.
The action by the teachers’ employer came amid outcry from teachers unions – Knut and Kuppet – calling on the government to withdraw all teachers from “unsafe counties” in Northeastern.
RIGHTS
But Mr Duale claimed that the directive by the commission was discriminatory and a violation of the students’ rights and residents who pay taxes to the government.
“You cannot purport to remove teachers from Northeastern Province as it is in Kenya. They pay taxes, contribute to the economy of Kenya and the leader of the majority comes from there.
“Next time you will remove doctors and the police. Why are we not removing army officers from Somalia yet we have lost many people? Even when over 100 of our children were killed in Garissa University, we did not withdraw teachers,” said Mr Duale in Nairobi on Saturday.