Kericho teachers to face murder charges after caning 14-year-old boy to death

Court gavel. [Courtesy]

Two teachers at St. Teresa Mixed Day and Boarding Primary School, who caned a pupil and subsequently caused his death, will be charged with murder, according to an inquest into the death of the 14-year-old pupil.

Senior Resident Magistrate Japhet Bii ruled that Aron Koskei and Philemon Koskei acted grossly and unlawfully, resulting in the death of Enock Kipkoech, a Standard 8 pupil, in 2022.

In his ruling, Magistrate Bii found that the teachers should be charged with causing the death of the deceased. He noted that the corporal punishment administered by the teachers inflicted grievous harm.

The tragic incident occurred on September 27, 2022, when Enock was allegedly beaten by one of the teachers and was later found dead, hanging in a bathroom within the school compound.

The court determined that the scene of the hanging appeared to have been staged.

Postmortem photos and testimony revealed serious injuries to Enock's buttocks, consistent with a brutal beating.

Teacher Aron Koskei, who was supervising examinations at the time, admitted to caning the boy for moving to another classroom during the exams.

He stated in court that he made the boy kneel and whipped him three times with a stick, claiming the disciplinary action lasted about five minutes.

Shockingly, Koskei expressed no regrets about this punishment.

He also admitted to teaching for ten years without a valid Teachers Service Commission (TSC) number, raising further concerns about the school's hiring practices.

Magistrate Bii emphasized in his ruling that the evidence pointed to "foul play before the deceased died" and highlighted that the corporal punishment in this case clearly escalated into a criminal act.

The boy's father, Richard Siele, a lecturer at Moi University, provided harrowing testimony, stating that his son was in good health when he left home and had no visible injuries.

Dr. Siele recounted how one of the teachers called him to the school, claiming his son was "not feeling well."

However, when he arrived, he found the school authorities absent and was later informed by his son's classmates that the boy had been found hanging.

Siele said, "I was not allowed to access the bathroom area where my son was allegedly found. The injuries seen in the photographs definitely did not come from home."

The court's findings now pave the way for criminal charges to be filed against the two teachers.

The Director of Public Prosecutions is expected to act on the court's recommendation and charge the teachers with manslaughter or murder, depending on the direction of further investigations.