This archive report was first published on 2 July 2021.
On June 30, Pius Mugambi, a 35-year-old Physics and Chemistry teacher at Oldonyiro Secondary School in Isiolo North, was attacked by several male learners after he allegedly ordered them to stop eating from sufurias during lunchtime.
According to Mugambi, he had gone to the school's dining hall and found at least ten students eating from sufurias. He asked them to eat from plates instead, which led to a commotion and the students physically assaulting him.
As Mugambi explained, the students claimed they were circumcised men and could not be ordered to use plates like children. They seriously beat him up, and the commotion attracted the attention of other teachers, who rushed to the scene and chased the students away.
However, Mugambi's ordeal did not end there. At 8:30 pm on the same day, while walking to a police post at Oldonyiro trading centre, he was attacked again by at least five students who emerged from a thicket and wrestled him to the ground, kicking and punching him several times.
A police officer on patrol rushed to the scene and rescued Mugambi, who was taken to a Nanyuki hospital for treatment due to head injuries.
On July 1, Mugambi filed a report at the Oldonyiro Police Station under the OB Number 05/7/2021, and police have launched investigations into the matter.
Moses Kimwere, the Secretary of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) in Isiolo, condemned the incident and asked authorities to expedite investigations and arraign the rogue students.
Isiolo County Director of Education, Hussein Koryow, however denied that Mugambi was attacked within the school compound, claiming the teacher met thugs who assaulted him at the Oldonyiro trading centre at 11:30 pm while heading home from a drinking joint.
Mugambi, a native of Tharaka Nithi County, has been a teacher at Oldonyiro Secondary School for three-and-a-half years and claims most of the boys who attacked him had recently undergone initiation into adulthood according to their communities' customs.
Oldonyiro Mixed Day and Boarding Secondary School in Isiolo County has a population of 300 students, with girls accounting for 100 of the learners' population.
