Kenya: Education crisis looms near border with Somalia as 2,000 teachers flee due to al-Shabaab attacks

By Ludovica Iaccino
Thursday, June 11, 2015

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Dozens of people are expected to join a 1,000 km peace march in northern Kenya to highlight problems, such as terror attacks, which blight the area.

According to activists, one of the most pressing issues is the impossibility of youths in the North Eastern Province (NEP), mainly inhabited by Kenyan-Somalis, being able to continue their studies after an estimated 2,000 teachers have fled the area fearing for their lives following deadly attacks by Somalia-based terror group Al-Shabaab.

As a result, dozens of schools have closed down and only students from wealthy families are able to continue their education after moving to other areas.

"There have been several terror attacks in northeastern Kenya near the border with Somalia," Abdullahi M Abdi, chief executive of Womankind Kenya -- a leading NGO aimed at solving problems affecting local communities in NEP -- told IBTimes UK.

"These attacks have created lots of fear among civil servants and teachers, many of whom come from other regions of Kenya."

Abdi explained that two major attacks in the past six months had a negative affect on teachers, who refused to go back to NEP.

The first occurred in November 2014 in Mandera, capital of Mandera County, where Shabaab terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 28 people, 17 of whom were teachers who were travelling home for Christmas.

"There was a shutdown in the education system in Mandera and the same occurred in Garissa [capital of Garissa county], after the militants attacked a university college killing 148 people in April 2015," Abdi said.

"Teachers are not comfortable with what is happening in the region. Approximately up to 2,000 have left because of terror attacks fear. But we fear the figure is bigger."

Abdi added that the government is currently working to see how it can employ so-called "contract teachers", former teachers now retired.

"But this is taking too long. At a local level, the county governments of Wajir, Garissa and Mandera vowed to allocate a certain amount of money to resolve both short and long-term problems. But until today, these are just promises, not tangible solutions."

Noordin Badel, one of the organisers of the walk, told IBTimes UK: "The walk is about trying to highlight the problems in northern Kenya and allow people to speak for themselves.

"Starting from Garissa bridge, we will be also visiting villages -- some of which are 50 km away from the road -- that is way is going to be a 1,000 km walk. We are expecting a lot of people to participate, especially from Garissa. Such a long walk will make people understand our desperate situation."

Abdirahman Tarar, a youth who aspires to become the next Garissa township MP and who is going to take part in the march, told IBTimes UK: " We intend to restore hope [for] the people and [show] that we are able to help ourselves despite the government neglect.

"We face double problems both from the terrorist and the government. Despite all these challenges, we don't feel lesser Kenyans."

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