
Insecurity Surges In Baringo County Disrupting Schools As Haiti Troops Ready
For weeks, students at Ngaratuko Primary School in Baringo County have faced a harsh reality.
Every day, they leave school under tight security to collect water from a nearby well, the only available source.
It wasn’t always like this; the school had water storage facilities.
However, prevailing insecurity has led to vandalism of the school’s infrastructure.
“Tulikuwa na bore hole huko kwa kijiji ambayo iliharibika, ukikuja kwa shule ile maji tunatumia sasa ni ya mto na kufika huko ni shida juu ya insecurity,” Purity Rotich, Teacher, Ngaratuko Primary School says.
“Vitu za shule zilichomwa, viombo, jerican ya shule ilichomwa, matank zote ziliharibiwa.”
The same insecurity has transformed this school, which has only 57 students, into both a learning institution and a home for families who have no other place to live due to the threat of banditry attacks.
During the day, the classes are for learning; at night, they transform into homes.
Students are frequently forced to miss classes in order to care for their younger siblings while their parents work on nearby farms in desperate attempts to rebuild their lives after being disrupted by banditry.
Aside from banditry attacks, schools struggle to provide adequate food supplies to keep students, particularly high school students, on campus.
Francis Cheptile, School Principal, states, “We only have one 90kg bag of maize and eight 50kg bags of beans. Students have been forced to eat porridge for dinner because we are trying to save stock.”
“Wanafunzi juzi wametoka shuleni wakatembea hadi Marigat kwa sababu hawana chakula,” he continued.
Schools have been forced to collaborate to address a food shortage caused by insecurity.
“We were forced to give our food to the secondary school after the students had no food in their store for three days,” said Thomas Kiburet, Headteacher of Yatya Primary School.
The school community is now urging the government to act quickly to combat banditry and provide adequate food to schools.
This will ensure that students do not fall behind in their education as the school year progresses toward midterms and, eventually, the end.
Insecurity Surges In Baringo County Disrupting Schools As Haiti Troops Ready