Teachers in Kenya who are based in the North-Eastern part of the country staged a protest at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) headquarters in Nairobi on Tuesday, demanding transfer over insecurity.
A video on the internet shows the teachers in Kenya gathered in front of the TSC headquarters to protest the processing of their transfers.
“Transfer! Transfer! Transfer! Hatutaki Mandera.” They are heard shouting.
“All we want is transfer and only transfer. We cannot be under army escort all the time, like we are some sort of narcotic drugs. And even when we are escorted, the armed forces are behind our buses, so we are exposed to danger. We are now saying no to Mandera,” one of the teachers said.
The educators working at Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa counties said their applications for transfers were constantly being ignored by the commission.
They said they would not go back to their places of duty, nor would the protest end, until their concerns were addressed.
“Our passionate appeal to President Ruto and [Interior CS] Kindiki is that they prioritise stabilising security in Mandera county. I have personally been forced not to attend several funerals of close relatives due to the reasons stated,” Jafan Kitui, a teacher at Al Huda Primary School in Mandera East said.
Recall that some weeks ago, the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki had called on the TSC to consider the option of reshuffling non-local teachers in the insecurity-stricken Northern counties after short durations of service in those communities.
“There is a bit of incitement from the local communities against non-local teachers, so some of the threats are coming from the local communities themselves, and we must therefore look towards engaging the local communities to accept the reality that they don’t have enough teachers,” she said.