The laxity of the ministries of education and health gave way to the deaths of four students and a senior teacher at Sacred Heart Mukumu Girls’ High School in Kakamega County.
This is according to the Kenya Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) who lay the blame squarely on the two ministries, tasked with quality assurance and public health and sanitation respectively.
An angry Kuppet secretary general Akelo Misori has told the media in Nairobi that the union is contemplating taking the Ministry of Health to court for failure to ensure compliance with public health standards in schools.
Misori explained that the union dispatched a team of health experts to the school after the incident said to have been food poisoning, which found out that the victims died as a result of contaminated food occasioned by poor sanitation at the school.
According to the team, the school’s water was stored in an underground tank that was likely to be contaminated by a nearby sewerage system.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu consequently moved school principal Ms. Fridah Ndolo, blaming her for the situation that led to the unfortunate deaths, a move Kuppet termed unfair buck-passing.
“There are serious compliance issues at the Ministry of Health as long as diarrhea is not reported, no one cares,” charged Misori.
Misori equally cited a ‘dysfunctional’ directorate of quality assurance at the Ministry of Education for the mess.
He said the union holds the government accountable for the loss of lives at the school and consequently pushes for compensation.
“We must sue the Ministry of Health for this; we will sue for damages.”
