Teacher injures boy’s penis while meting out banned corporal punishment
A 17-year-old schoolboy in Tigania East, Meru county is nursing serious injuries on his penis, after he was hit with a cane by a teacher who was enforcing corporal punishment.
The Class Seven pupil at Ngage Primary school was injured early May this year, but his parents only learnt of the matter when the swelling and pain on his manhood became unbearable , forcing him to speak out.
On the fateful day, the boy together with others were being canned for failure to bring water for their earthen floors.
It is during the incident that the enraged teacher, who was caning both boys and girls on their behinds, hit him in the private parts, leaving him unconscious.
The boy claims he was warned against reporting the matter to his parents, being intimidated with dire consequences that would affect his studies.
“I had to be carried to the head teacher’s office where I spent hours regaining consciousness. After that, I was prevailed upon not to report to police the matter with the head teacher convincing me that all would be well. The teacher even promised to take me to hospital,” he recounted.
PAIN BECAME UNBEARABLE
The boy remained tight-lipped and never revealed the ordeal until early this month after the pain became unbearable.
“Whenever I urinate, I feel pain. The organ is swollen and the pain became unbearable despite some pain killers that I have been taking,” he said.
He was treated at Mukothima health centre and further scans at Meru Level Five hospital showed that he was indeed injured.
On Thursday, his distraught mother decried the teachers’ negligence and called on the Teachers’ Service Commission to intervene.
She said she learnt of the injury on September 5, 2019 close to four months after the injury and attempts to have the teacher compelled to take her son to hospital have been unsuccessful.
“I was so shocked that a pupil can be injured at school and is not taken to hospital or the parents be informed of it. The nature of injury is not something to joke with since it can render him infertile. This is a terrible thing that has caused me sleepless nights. The school administration was also not forthcoming with information and kept beating around the bush,” she said.
The boy says that the teacher was incensed that he had undergone circumcision in December.
“When I came back, he challenged me whether I would be obedient since I had been circumcised and I said I was keen to learn,” he said.
The matter has since been reported at Mulika police station and the mother is asking relevant authorities to intervene.
“I think they are punishing me because I’m poor. I know that corporal punishment is banned but even when disciplining a child, there are parts you don’t him,” she said.