Police in Kisumu are holding a female teacher for allegedly recruiting her students into lesbianism.
The teacher at Asol Mixed Secondary School in Seme was arrested on Friday after revelation from students that she had been using sex toys on them.
A parent at the school who exposed the teacher said at least 16 female students admitted to having been victims of the teacher’s act.
The parent said he learnt about the issue after students went on a strike when the school principal failed to address the matter.
“It started from one student confessing having been lured by the teacher to engage in the act in exchange for money, and the issue escalated with more students opening up,” said the parent.
According to the parent who has since recorded statement with police, one of the students who fell victim of the act said the teacher had been inviting them individually to her house to help them with revision, before she could lure them with small cash in order to accept her sexual advances.
At some point, the teacher was said to be convincing the girls to spend at her house in Kombewa Market Centre, where they were given goodies.
“The student complained of abdominal pains, and we thought it was mere pains coming with the menstrual cycle. But the girl revealed what had been happening to her, which she said had become a norm,” he said.
He said the students who rejected the teacher’s advances were intimidated in class through unwarranted punishments.
Another parent said her daughter who has been in the school since 2016 recently got salvation, and went ahead to ‘confess her sins’ in church, exposing the act with the same teacher.
According to the parent, her girl had frequented the teacher’s house, and she was happy that the girl was in a good company, given that she is set to sit her national examination this year.
“At one point I doubted if she was really going to the teacher’s house, because the frequency was worrying. I thought she was using the teacher’s name to escape the home for her own businesses,” she said.
But last term, the girl shocked a church congregation after she said she had been engaging in lesbianism with her teacher, and that she had seen light and wanted to repent.
Her mother took up the matter with the school administration, which promised to investigate it and take appropriate action.
The parent said she was yet to get any tangible response from the principal, a situation which saw them pursue the matter through the legal way.
“We had even asked the principal to consider recommending the transfer of the teacher, but all was in vein. I was shocked when I went to school last week and the principal said he had little to do about the matter,” she said.
According to one of the student leaders in the school, the principal had told them to maintain calm, following a planned meeting with the school board and officials from the Ministry of Education, a meeting whose outcome was not communicated to students.
“Last week students demanded to know the fate of the teacher, but the principal was reluctant to address us, so we decided to boycott classes, and that is how parents came in,” said a student.
County Director of Education Sabina Aroni confirmed having been aware of the matter which was reported to her last week, and that the arrest came as they were pursuing the teacher.
“When we got the information, we tasked the Sub County Director of Education to take statements from the relevant people, and as we speak our investigations are on,” she said.
Kisumu County Police Commander John Kamau confirmed that the teacher was being held at Kombewa Police Station, and is set to be arraigned before Maseno court today.
He said five students have since recorded statements in relation to the matter, and police were putting final touches ahead of presenting the teacher to court.
“Out of the five students who recorded statements, two said they were victims of the teacher’s acts, while the others said the teacher has been pursuing them but they were yet to engage with her,“ he said.
This even as principal Joshua Nyatuoro defended the teacher, saying he was convinced that some parents were out to spoil the name of the school.
He said only one case was brought to his attention, and he questioned the student involved who could not authenticate her claims.
“When I got the information, I did investigations internally and found nothing. But we know the person who has some hidden interests in the school and want to paint us negatively despite our good performance in the national examinations in the past few years,” he said.
He however confirmed that he had already recorded statement with police in relation to the arrest of the accused teacher, and that he was ready to give his investigations report.
