YVONNE'S TAKE: You cannot punish teachers for wishing to be safe

What is however interesting is the fact that a section of professionals who have had their colleagues targeted in the past have continued to make pleas for their safety and security to be guaranteed. For more than 3 years now, teachers have been calling for exactly this. 

According to the Ministry of Interior, 36 teachers were killed and another 8 injured over the last 10 years from cases of insecurity in the arid and semi-arid regions. This figure was given by the Cabinet Secretary of Interior when he was before parliament a few months ago. 

Some of these deaths and attacks have been particularly gruesome and heinous. It is no surprise then when teachers remain apprehensive of the situation there, including postings to these parts of Kenya. 

Proposed solutions to the crisis include giving teachers flight tickets, to avoid the treacherous roads and avoid the fate of 18 teachers killed in 2014 on a bus from Mandera to Nairobi. Or perhaps shorter service periods for non-local teachers posted in those areas. Yet another proposal is to move them to safe areas during times of high-security threats and sensitise teachers to be on high alert and exercise situational awareness at all times. 

Imagine having to live and work in these types of circumstances. You may give them plane tickets, but they get shot. You may have them move to safer areas, but they remember their colleagues being isolated, taken to one side and killed in a brutal attack that shocked the whole nation. 

No one should have to be subjected to this. In fact, no one should even be forced to work in such conditions. Yet, this is exactly what happened. 

A group of teachers recently camped at the Teachers Service Commission offices seeking to be transferred from the region, fearing for their security. What happened to them after their request for transfers? They have been interdicted; interdicted for deserting their workstations. 

These teachers who say they believed they were receiving transfer letters, were surprised to find interdiction letters instead. These teachers say they have to personally pay GSU for their own security. These teachers say, their colleagues were killed, not in his own home, but at a police station, while seeking refuge. 

These teachers will now have to undergo a 7-point appeal process for determination of their appeal process. All these technical processes are for one simple reason- the teachers want to feel safe and secure. 

Ironically these interdictions have taken place in Nairobi, far away from the hotspot where it all happens. 

Folks, we need to do better. Teachers have been crying for years for their safety in these parts of Kenya. They have to work in the most unsafe conditions and still do the noblest job in the world, to impart knowledge to young minds. Yet all they get is suggestions, proposals, and now interdictions. Interdictions for asking for their safety- interdictions for asking the government and the authorities to do better at keeping them safe. 

Ladies and gentlemen, this action fails, not only the teachers themselves but also the communities they were supposed to serve. You cannot punish them for wishing to be safe. As has been said several times by many leaders in this country, your security starts with you, and they are right, survival is indeed an individual endeavour. Such a shame that the teachers are being punished for it!