When Geoffrey Kipngeno Lelon applied for a teaching job and was posted to Mandera County in northeastern Kenya, he was excited.
He thought that, like his colleagues in other regions, he would enjoy his tour of duty imparting knowledge to young learners.
Although he knew in the back of his mind that the region had a history of insecurity, nothing prepared him for what he found when he arrived at Duse Boys' Secondary School in Mandera East to begin his work.
“For three years, my colleagues and I have literally lived life on the edge, never knowing when terrorists will strike or being forced to spend countless nights sleeping on the veranda of a police station whenever there are intelligence reports of an impending attack,” said Mr Lelon.
Improvised electronic devices (IEDs) have been detonated, leaving motor vehicles mangled, claiming hundreds of lives in the three years he has been in the region, while dozens of his colleagues have been killed in attacks by bandits on police stations.
Geoffrey Kipngeno Lelon, a teacher from Kericho County, during an interview on October 12, 2023 at his home in Tugunon on the border of Kipkelion East and Ainamoi constituencies in Kericho county
Photo credit: Vitalis Kimutai | Nation Media Group
On July 14, Philemon Ngeno, a teacher from Litein, Bureti constituency, Kericho County, was killed at Wargadut police station during a raid by al Shabaab, who shot him 14 times and killed two policemen.
“Day in, day out, we go to sleep at night never knowing if we will make it alive the next morning. Not even the sense of security in the precincts of the police station is assuring enough as they are all prone to surprise attacks, leaving dead bodies of civilians and policemen in its wake,” said Mr Lemon.
The affected teachers said they pay Sh1,000 monthly to Kenya Police Reservists (KPR) to provide them with security in their respective areas.
“It is difficult to know who a is friend among the people in the streets and a potential bandit posing a threat to one’s life. One is forced to use instincts, make use of intelligence reports filtering in, and pray to God for safety. Split seconds decision is at most all there is between life and death,” explains a dejected Mr Lelon.
He displays the character of a man with deep-seated rage and pain, one who wants out of a cage in which he has been imprisoned for a long time, but has come to realise that it is not only energy draining but also psychologically torturous.
“As you device methods of dodging bullets and IEDs, the people back home do not know the safety risks and psychological torture you are subjected to as you fend for them and seek to provide an education to young innocent and deserving child,” said Mr Lelon.
The geography and history teacher, along with 129 others from different parts of the country, have not reported for duty since schools opened for the third and final term of the year due to insecurity and lack of police escort to their stations.
As a result, 60 of them have been served with letters of interdiction by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) as a disciplinary measure, even as they vow never to return to the region and demand to be transferred to safer areas.
“We are asking the Commission to transfer us to schools anywhere in the country where our security is assured. We got more than we bargained for in Northeastern and there is no going back,” said Mr Lelon.
When we arrived for the interview at his home in Tugonon village, the family's land, divided in two by a tarmac road (Brooke-Kipkelion), one part in Ainamoi constituency and the other in Kipkelion East constituency, we found Mr Lelon and his wife Daisy building a chicken coop.
Five small sufurias, along with plates and cups, had been washed and left to dry on a rug outside the newly built wooden-walled, iron-sheet-roofed, cement-floored house, a decent dwelling he built from his salary after being hired in January 2021.
“For me, I better be jobless and alive than die and be brought home in a coffin. I have a young family that needs me more. The same applies to the majority of my colleagues,” said Mr Lemon, as his five-year-old son sauntered home from school as if on cue during the interview on Thursday afternoon.
Mr Lelon attended Kapser Primary School, Tugunon Secondary School – both in Kericho County, and Kibabii Teachers Training College, where he graduated in 2017.
Since August 28, the affected teachers from Wajir, Mandera and Garissa counties have camped at the TSC headquarters demanding to be transferred out of the region, but the commission has instead issued them with interdiction letters.
The commission had directed the teachers to return to their stations by September 7 or face disciplinary action, which has been implemented in the form of interdiction.
"Your request for transfer out of the North Eastern region is acknowledged by TSC. However, due to lack of a suitable replacement your request is hereby declined. You are therefore directed to report to your workstation by Thursday the 7th September, 2023 failure to which disciplinary action shall be preferred against you,” reads a letter from TSC to one of the teachers.
The teachers have petitioned Parliament to intervene and have them transferred out of the region, saying their lives are in danger even as they fight the TSC interdiction.
“You deserted duty with effect from 08/092023 to date. Consequently, you are hereby interdicted with effect from 22/09/2023. Before TSC proceeds to consider and determine your case, you are invited to make a defence statement in writing within 21 days from the date of this letter,” reads another letter to one of the teachers.
The National Assembly's Education Committee, chaired by Julius Melly, had earlier urged TSC not to interdict the teachers, but to transfer them and find replacements among locals.
"We have not refused to teach, but insecurity issues have driven us out of the region. We must remember that as much as we are happy to have been employed and earn a salary, no dead person is paid (a salary),” said Mr Lelon.
Mr Geoffrey Kipngeno Lelon repairs a chicken coop at his home in Tugunon village, Kericho county on October 12, 2023.
Photo credit: Vitalis Kimutai | Nation Media Group
Their determination to stay away from the region stems from the fact that some have continued to receive threats in their absence from people they do not know.
“After failing to report on duty, we have received threats and cyber bullying with the photos taken while camping at the TSC headquarters being circulated around with our faces circled,” said Mr Lelon.
Some companies providing public transport services to northeastern have withdrawn their services due to al Shabaab attacks, leading to an increase in fares for the firms operating PSVs in the region.
With the withdrawal of the means of transport and police escorts to the region, the teachers cannot travel by road even if they could afford to.
From Nairobi, there are usually two routes – Nairobi-Garissa-Wajir-Mandera which is a preserve for locals, and a second route: Nairobi-Isiolo, Marsabit-Moyale-Mandera (which is more than 1,000 kilometres).
From Moyale to Tagaba, Banisa, Sarman, Hola, Ramu, Mandera is the route that is open to non-locals under police escort, according to the teachers posted to the region.
From Kericho to Mandera, it cost an average of Sh7,000 at the beginning of the year, but now it costs Sh9,000.
Teachers have therefore been left with the option of using passenger planes that ply the region, whose tickets they say have been hiked from Sh12,000 to Sh25,000 -- unaffordable for most of them.
The affected teachers have been camping at the TSC headquarters demanding transfers after failing to get police escorts to their stations due to the growing insecurity in the region.
Some of the teachers have not been paid for between one and three months for failing to report for duty, while others who fled the region in July when insecurity became unbearable have been issued with interdiction letters.
It has also emerged that some of them have not received disciplinary letters and are receiving full salaries, raising questions about the criteria used to punish some and leave others out.
Speaking at Mandera Teachers Training College earlier this week, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said the government will employ more teachers in the northeastern region to provide quality education to learners.
"In the near future, the North Eastern region should be self-sufficient in teachers by opening more training institutions locally," Mr Machogu said while launching the Mandera County Education Task Force report.
Meanwhile, his Interior counterpart, Kithure Kindiki, told the Parliamentary Committee on Education on August 2 that al-Shabaab attacks in northern Kenya had affected learning in schools and that the government was keen to rid the area of militants from Somalia.
Prof Kindiki said teachers were being relocated to safer places because of the insecurity and suggested that online learning and teaching should be adopted by the TSC.
“Some of the threats are coming from the local communities as well and we are engaging them to find community-led and backed initiatives to resolve the issues arising,” he said.
In 2014, a total of 28 teachers died in an attack by bandits on a bus taking them to Nairobi for the December holidays.
