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"content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, in the recent past, we have had problems of insecurity, especially in the North Eastern parts of Kenya. About four or five months ago, two teachers were killed by suspected Al Shaabab militia. As a result, the TSC decided to transfer all non-local teachers from northern parts of Kenya. Wajir in particular was affected seriously. Over 900 teachers were transferred at ago. As a result, students have suffered up to date. This problem has been on and off. It is not the first time that teachers have been transferred from the region. In 2015, there was a problem of insecurity and all non-local teachers were moved. The same thing happened in 2016 and 2018. Sometime back, there were teachers from Mandera who brought a Petition to the Senate, complaining about several issues involving discrimination, threats, religious bias and so on. However, those issues do not really exist. This is because even in the 1970s and 1980s, when some of us were in schools, most of the teachers came from outside North Eastern; they are now referred to as non-locals. We did not have such problems then. However, of late, with the coming of age of devolution and Kenyans becoming more sectarian than normal - with political divides - things have turned out to be worse. Even before the insecurity incidents occurred, where two teachers were killed and more than 100 public schools closed especially in Wajir, the non-local teachers formed more than 60 per cent of the teaching fraternity in Northern Kenya. You can imagine what happens to schools in those areas whenever non-local teachers are removed, especially Wajir, Mandera and Garissa counties. Madam Temporary Speaker, the cycle of recruiting teachers and deploying them to counties in North Eastern, only to be transferred within one year or less portrays TSC to be incompetent or trying to use this area as a recruiting ground. Recently, the residents of North Eastern were very critical of the TSC. They have been complaining that the region is being used as a recruitment centre. This is because teachers, especially in the secondary schools, who are usually contracted for at least three years, do not stay that long. Even without incidents of insecurity, they are transferred within one year. They are transferred after complaining to the TSC. This poses a problem to those areas. For now, the starting point for the affected counties is to evaluate the performance of public education sector for the 20 or more years. In the earlier years, when exams were being done in the East African region, students especially in secondary schools, used to perform very well. However, when things changed, a good number of students started failing. We do not know the reasons for this because we had enough teachers in the early years compared to the current situation. The other reason for the shortage of teachers in those areas is that the locals do not want to study education. Possibly, they think that jobs in the education sector do not pay well. Everybody wants to go for lucrative business and courses. You will see students from Northern Kenya going to study accounts, medical courses and supplies and The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}