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Outrage over teacher filmed brutally beating pupils – VIDEO

By ALEX NJERU February 9th, 2017 2 min read

Police in Tharaka Nithi County are investigating a case where two teachers of Mwimbi Boarding Primary School have been filmed brutally beating up pupils.

In the footage, which has gone viral on social media, a teacher is seen using a hose pipe to administer corporal punishment to pupils who are lying on their stomach while another teacher watches.

At one point, the teacher is seen stepping on the back of the pupils who are struggling to stand up.

Although corporal punishment was banned by Ministry of Education, some schools still exercise it.

The school head teacher, Mr Mwangi Njeru, said the incident happened on January 2, 2017 but the alleged teacher, who is believed to have filmed it, released to the social media on February 3.

He said he was informed of the existence of the video on Friday by Tharaka-Nithi County Education Quality Assurance official, Mr Lawrence Kaburu.

“I was not aware of the case until I was sent the footage by an education official,” said Mr Mwangi.

He said he immediately reported the matter to the County Director of Education and the school Board of Management (BoM) and the two teachers were summoned and immediately dismissed.

The accused teachers had been employed by the school’s board of management but are registered with Teachers Service Commission. One had worked at the school for one year and the other for two terms.

Mr Mwangi added that with the advice of the education office and the BoM, he reported the matter to the police.

The school manager denied claims that there was another case where some pupils were tied for several hours on a flag post as punishment.

“This was an isolated case because we are a civilized society and we know the right way of correcting a pupil,” he said.

REACTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Maara OCPD, Mr John Njihia, told media in his office that the two accused and the head teacher had already recorded a statement and investigations are ongoing.

“We are going on with the investigations and we are hopping the two will soon be arraigned in court,” said Mr Njihia.

He added that he had advised the parents of the pupils to take them to a hospital for check-up and have a P3 form.

However, the OCPD noted that the case is complicated but promised to get to the bottom of the matter.

The school is among the top performing in the county in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and has a population of 1,013 pupils.

The current class eight has a population of 240 pupils who are set to register for KCPE.

On social media, users demanded the arrest and prosecution of the accused teachers.