The cooing and gurgling of a baby interrupts the chatter of adults lining the stairway of a building along Nairobi’s Mfangano Street.
Oblivious to her surroundings, the baby playfully tugs at the strings of a beanie on her head and rubs her hands in delight as her father struggles to contain the wriggly bundle.
The gurgly five-month-old is the second born child to Silas Mugambi and his wife Regina Kagendo, who are among teachers that have, for more than two weeks, been living in the building.
The building is the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) headquarters whose sixth and fourth floors have been turned into a home for dozens of teachers from Northern Kenya that have refused to return to their work stations.
The more than 1,000 teachers from Wajir, Mandera and Garissa counties cite insecurity and other challenges following the massacre of at least 30 of their colleagues in Mandera County last December.
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The Teachers Service Commission has so far advertised their positions but not even this has deterred the teachers’ resolve.
A heavy odour hangs in the air as one ascends the sixth floor. It gets stronger on entry to a stuffy boardroom that is temporarily converted into a ‘bedroom’ for the male teachers at night. The women sleep on the fourth floor.
Briefly seperated
Traces of sections of the building having been turned into a home, at least ‘temporarily’ are evident. A brown pair of trousers and vest hang over a banister at the top of the stairway on the sixth floor. Two floors below, are several mattresses on which bags and suitcases are neatly stacked into a corner.
The air here is fresh, the floor is swept clean and the office is bustling with activity as other workers troop in to start the day’s business.
By 8.00am, the boardroom also assumes its ‘day’s roles’ and is quickly filled with teachers assembling for a meeting. Nights, for the men, are spent on the few recliner chairs in the room or on the floor. The few mattresses available are reserved for the women and children, in a room on fourth floor.
And so as night falls, couples are briefly separated, to meet again in the morning for a quick breakfast, if one can afford it. Often most of the teachers camped at Knut house have just one meal a day, including Kagendo, who ordinarily needs to feed better as she is breastfeeding.
For about Sh50 one can get some ugali and sukumawiki (kales) across the street, and hope it will fill their stomachs for a couple of hours before the next meal.
“I have no relatives or friends in Nairobi who I can stay with and I can’t afford to stay in a hotel or even a lodging. Even if I did, it would be too much to ask them to accommodate my family too,” says Mugambi.
The couple, residents of Tharaka Nithi County, have been teaching in Wajir County and had to leave their older son at home with a house help.
Kagendo admits it has been difficult to live with a baby in Knut House, but says she has no option. She cradles her baby and recalls how she almost lost her when she developed complications.
“It took the intervention of a staffing officer to get my maternity leave,” she says.
Despite the obviously cramped conditions at Knut House, Mugambi says he now has more peaceful nights knowing his family is safe.
The story isn’t any different for Joel and Susan Musungu, who have been teaching in Wajir County. Musungu, a resident of Kakamega County, says he has been warned to return to his work station and says he is not moved by TSC’s action to advertise their jobs.
“We saw it coming. Now that its official, we can take the next step,” he says. The couple, who left their two children, aged five and two years with their grandmother in Kakamega County, have also been putting up on the sixth and fourth floors of Knut House.
“It has been difficult to raise our family in a hostile working environment. It is not just the daily fear of attacks from militant groups but access to water and fresh fruits and vegetables that are vital for growing children. Our parents have also threatened to disown us if we return to the area because they don’t want to receive our bodies in caskets,” says Joel.
“Travelling to our work stations is expensive, especially for a family. From Kakamega to Nairobi alone costs me Sh10,000, then I have to part with Sh6,000 more to get us to Wajir. We always travel as a unit and should something happen, then my entire family will be wiped out,” he says.
The couple too, recount tales of their children being teased ‘for being different’ and recount terror filled nights spent at police stations whenever fighting broke out between rival clans in the area.
The situation is, however, a bit different for Flora Atambo and her husband Osoro, who recently moved into a single room in Umoja Estate for Sh5,000.
“We lived here (Knut House) for about two weeks, but I got some money and moved my family,” says the father of two children aged four and two.
The children are now left under the care of a relative as the couple, who are from Kisii County, make the daily trip to report to their employer at the TSC offices.
