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Magoha orders teachers to confiscate sanitisers from learners

By Hilary Kimuyu January 20th, 2021 2 min read

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha on Wednesday instructed teachers to confiscate all small-bottle sanitisers from all learners.

The CS, who speaking at Our Lady of Fatima Secondary School in Kariobangi, Nairobi County said some students had been using hand sanitisers to start fires in schools.

“I want to tell teachers that they must not allow small-bottle sanitisers into schools. If any child has portable sanitiser, it should be taken and kept and given when the child is leaving school,” said Magoha.

Prof Magoha revealed that the government had already noted that a fire was started using a sanitiser in one of the schools.

He further called on law enforcement agencies to take stern action against the perpetrators of identified cases and asked teachers to take care of themselves.

He blamed parents over the increased student attacks on teachers terming them as ‘negligent’ and not giving their children tough love and treating them like eggs during the nine months they stayed home due to the pandemic.

“For nine months a child has been at home and you’ve been treating him like an egg and you expect the Principal to instill in him discipline, what do you think will happen?” he pondered.

His worry comes after the country has seen several students arrested for indiscipline in schools.

On Sunday, a Form Three student was arrested after he attacked and killed a school guard in Vihiga county.

The 18-year-old student from Nyang’ori Boys secondary school is said to have become unruly and attacked fellow students when the guard intervened.

A few days earlier, an 18-year-old Form Two student from Kitutu Masaba Constituency, Nyamira County, was arrested over an alleged plot to attack a teacher with a machete.

According to police, the boy’s target was the school deputy principal, but luckily he was rescued by colleagues before the student executed his threat even as his motive remains unknown.

The incident came a day after another student was arrested for stabbing two teachers at Kisii High School, Kisii County.

Isaya Flora, 17, had been asked to kneel down at the staffroom for reporting to class late but he refused to be punished.

He instead pounced on one of the teachers, Edwin Nyakundi, leaving him with serious injuries to his left shoulder, abdomen, head, and left leg.

The other victim, Elvis Maoto, sustained stab wounds on his cheeks.

In another disturbing case, on Monday, police at Kegati in Kisii County arrested a Grade Four pupil and her boyfriend, a Form Four student, over attempted murder.

The 14-year-old girl is said to have tried to poison her father using porridge she had cooked on Sunday after he questioned their affair.

“Her father queried her about the affair on Saturday but she was not happy about it. On Sunday morning when others left for church, she was left at home with the father. She prepared porridge, put in poison and served him,” said area chief, Alexander Nyakenywa.

The chief said that she had allegedly put Diazinon, a pesticide used on vegetables, in the porridge but her father noticed the foul smell before he could take it.