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Education officials kicked out of school

By  PAUL MUTUA

Irate parents at Kathyethoka Primary School in Kitui Central District Wednesday ejected education officials from the school over failure to transfer the institution’s head teacher.

 Deputy District Education Officer Peter Maundu and the County Teachers Service Commission’s Staffing Officer Grace Mwangi were booed and jeered by the parents who broke into song and dance and later chased them away.

 The two had gone to the school to resolve the impasse between the parents and the head teacher before hell broke loose.

 The school has remained closed since Monday after the parents withdrew their children and vowed not to relent until the head teacher is moved and his deputy’s interdiction lifted.

 Before the meeting aborted, speaker after speaker accused the local education office of frustrating their efforts to have him ‘discplined’ for a number of misdeeds they leveled against him. 

Shouted down

But Maundu incensed the parents when he said the head teacher would not be transferred by acclamation or through withdrawal of the children from the school.

 The parents shouted the education official down, forcing him to cut short his speech and walk away.

 Ms Mwangi and other education officers followed him to his car before they sped off.

Earlier, Kitui Township Ward Representative Ngoima Kimanzi and Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Assistant Branch Executive Secretary Job Ngusu had tried to prevail upon the parents to be patient to no avail.

 Kimanzi blamed the dismal performance of the county in national examinations on the hard and arrogant stance taken by education staff like Maundu and said he would stand by the parents until their demands were met.