Nyamira,

Friday, March 31, 2023

K.N.A

By Deborah Bochere

The teacher at Riangómbe Primary Boarding School in Nyamira County who badly assaulted a 9-year old grade four pupil has been arrested.

Nyamira North Sub-County Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) Malack Namai confirmed to press yesterday that Jackson Marucha who unlawfully administered brutal corporal punishment to a grade four pupil on Sunday leaving him with deep body wounds and blood clots on his back side has been arrested.

The DCC said they learnt about the incident from social media early Thursday morning and immediately started investigations on the whereabouts of the concerned teacher for necessary lawful actions on him.

“The incident is regrettable, and there is no amount of pressure which will deter us from executing our mandate to punish this particular teacher who did this traumatizing injustice to this young and innocent pupil,” Namai stated.

He explained that Children’s Act 2022 Section 25 states that Kenya formally repealed the right to parents and any other person to administer corporal punishment and therefore granted that every child has the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment.

He said the teacher and any other person discovered during the investigations to have neglected his duty concerning this particular case will be held culpable and face the full force of the law.

“Problems cannot be solved using violence since such inhuman acts remain in the child’s memory in his entire life. This assault incident has traumatized the baby and left lifetime scars on this innocent child’s body. As the county administrators, we shall not condone any form of corporal punishment to school going children, instead, school administrators must use guidelines stipulated by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on how to administer punishment to erring learners,” Namai warned.

The officer pointed out that there are so many humane ways of punishing a pupil and nurture them in the correct manner because schools are meant to be safe places for all school going children where they freely interact with everyone within that environment to learn and grow into responsible mature Kenyan.

“I have advised the County Director of Education (CDE) to organize for a meeting with all school head teachers and principals to be brought to speed on what the country’s regulations and operational laws are concerning children upbringing, their rights, responsibilities and their role and extent of correcting their delinquent behaviour while in school,” the DCC hinted.

He appealed to all school stakeholder especially parents and the community in Borabu Sub County where the school is situated to remain calm seek proper channels to deal with their grievances, leave their children at peace to continue with their normal learning as they deal with the teacher who assaulted the pupil. Any other person who neglected his duty to protect this child from assault.

A grade four pupil was assaulted by his teacher on Sunday at Riang’ombe Primary Boarding School staffroom for losing his school shirt terming him a careless pupil.

He received numberless strokes using a PVC green pipe while some older boys held him tight to the floor. The helpless pupil urinated on himself and was left with deep wounds on his backside and limping without any medical attention from the school administration.

Information about his situation leaked to the pupil’s guardian on Tuesday when the pupils went out to Ensoko Primary School for ball game sports competition.

A relative went to the sports ground and was curious to know where his nephew was from fellow school mates. They are the ones who narrated to him what had happened to him hence the reason why he was not participating in the sports event.

He immediately informed his brother, who is father to the pupil. Meanwhile, he went straight to school and demanded to see the boy, took him to hospital for treatment as his parents who stay in Nairobi made arrangements to travel to school in Nyamira.

Courtesy K.N.A

Photographs by Deborah Bochere