It is no secret, North Eastern education is in turmoil

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A primary school teacher at a boarding school in Garissa County, who hails from Mwingi, says there is so much fear in the region that she is forced to spend nights with three pupils also from 'down' Kenya (non-locals).

She reported to school with only one other colleague following a mass boycott from teachers in the area over insecurity.

"I was employed in March this year," she says, "during the recruitment we were told that we were to replace retiring teachers."

Little did she know that they were to replace the teachers who had refused to work in Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties, following last year's terror attacks in Mandera and recent Garissa University College attack.

Early this year, Mandera teachers camped at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) offices in Nairobi for 60 days, a protest, which saw them struck off the payroll. But the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) moved to court and the salaries was reinstated.

"Our decision was final. No teacher is going back there," says Knut Secretary General, Wilson Sossion, "We also demanded for transfers for our more than 800 teachers and the court will be making a decision in 30 days."

In the meantime, most of 1,089 teachers recruited by the TSC are yet to take up their jobs.

Jones Osoro, who before the stand-off taught at the Furaha Mixed Secondary School and is the chairman of the Garissa, Wajir, Mandera and Baringo teachers, says he knows about 20 new recruits who reported.

"The Government is yet to address the insecurity in the area, and there is no way non-locals can work there without a threat to their lives," he tells us adding, "even the ones who reported say they live in fear."

Indeed, the female teacher we spoke to says they rarely sleep and they keep looking behind their shoulders.

"I came here due to desperation. I had just been employed and I was told if I do not report, I would be sacked. I am on probation and I have not even received my first salary," she says.

Of the 1,089 teaching positions, 637 are for primary and 452 for secondary schools, and most teachers are not from the North Eastern region.

Statistics from TSC reveal that non-local teachers outnumber the local teachers in the three counties.

In Mandera, there are some 1,406 teachers. Of these, 607 are from the local community while 799 are non-locals.

Wajir County has 1,355 teachers; 694 are from the local community, while 661 are non-locals.

And Garissa has 1,328 teachers with 964 of them from outside the county. Only 364 are from the local community.

Cumulatively, there are some 4,089 teachers in the three counties. More than half of these teachers are not from the local communities.