School principal caught up in sexual harassment row
The principal of secondary school in Nairobi is facing possible action from the Ministry of Education following complaints of sexual harassment leveled against him by female teachers in the school.
In two separate cases, two female teachers at Uhuru Secondary School have accused the school principal, Mr Juma Duncan, of harassment, assault and intimidation for turning down his sexual advances.
In light of this Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has instructed the Nairobi Regional Centres of Expertise (RCE) to probe case for necessary action to be taken.
The CS termed the allegations as “sickening” after a local media house exposed Uhuru Secondary School principal of harassing and intimidating female teachers at the school.
According to Capital FM, in the first case, 28-year-old teacher, Ancellah Cherotich Kessio, said she has lived in fear for the past three years after she turned down her boss’ sexual advances.
DEATH THREATS
The teacher said she has been receiving death threats and that the principal has gone as far as tarnishing her name by telling the students that she is an unfit teacher.
Ms Kessio narrated how the principal promised to promote her to head the Humanities Department if she accepted to become his girlfriend.
The teacher claims that on another occasion the principal offered her Sh2,000 and requested her to accompany him to Mombasa.
@kenyanpundit @CapitalFMKenya Sickening! I instructed the Nairobi RCE to follow-up immediately. Will accordingly liaise with TSC for action
— Fred Matiangi (@FredMatiangi) March 23, 2017
The Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko also waded into the matter.
.ODPP_KE directs for thorough & speedy investigations into sexual harassment of secondary school teacher. Those responsible to be prosecuted pic.twitter.com/A5buPqnFbt
— ODPP_KE (@ODPP_KE) March 24, 2017
The Principal, Kessio recalled, kept on telling her; “You look tempting, you look sexy” on the many occasions he ran into her within the school compound.
The mother of one explained that she found it prudent to give her employer time to handle the matter since she had reported it to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) who confirmed that they had received her complaint and they were investigating the matter.
In the second case, a Biology and Agriculture teacher Mary Karimi Muhia, who still has marks of assault on her thigh and head, was beaten by three of her fellow teachers in the presence of the principal after she recorded students confessing that the school principal had coerced them to lie that she had given them an examination leakage.
ASSAULTED
According to a P3 form filed at Buruburu Police Station, it was recorded that Karimi was assaulted by the three teachers after she was summoned by the Deputy Principal to his office on February 23, 2017.
Three teachers attacked her while trying to snatch a phone in which she had recorded the students. She also claims that her attackers thought that she had recorded evidence of sexual harassment by the principal.
She claims that one teacher held her to allow two of her colleagues to hit her on the thigh with a sharp object and pluck off her hair.
According to the aggrieved teacher, at some point the principal joined in and she was only rescued from the ordeal after another teacher responded to her screams.
“I was dirty and bleeding and my panty was down. As I moved out in the presence of students who were taking lunch and workers all over to see what was happening, many thought I had been raped. There was blood coming from my thigh entering and I was limping,” she narrated.
