By Mary Mwendwa
Its lunch time at Arabal Primary School in Baringo County, the school is calm and many students are gathered in small groups while others are playing football slowly with less energy in action.
No signs of any food being served here.
Mercy Kiptoo a class seven pupil from Chebirebei village is sited in her class revising an exam paper, she looks dull and tired, She is hungry. She freshly recalls how cattle rustlers severally attacked her village and school at the climax of fights last year. She witnessed when her school was attacked and a security guard shot to death as they scampered for safety in the bushes leaving all their stationary littered everywhere at the Arabal Primary school compound.
Peace has been restored, but Mercy spends the whole day hungry at school because her school does not receive the school feeding program ration which was her savior. She takes me back through what happened before her school was closed during last year’s conflict.
“We were so scared as bullets were spayed everywhere in the school as we ran for safety, thank God no pupil died but we were terrified until now, any loud sounds scare us so much. My family’s livestock was stolen and we had to move out of our home for safety, I had to stop school because now everybody in the school had run away. It was a difficult time for me because I was not going to school, we had lost our livestock and my parents and other siblings were very stressed.
She narrates how she spends the entire day hungry. “My home is very far from here, in the morning I have to wake up at 4.00 am in the morning and get a light breakfast before I start my long trekking journey, I reach the school with an entirely empty stomach and set to learn the whole day. The school has no food to give us and therefore those of us who come from far have no choice but to stay hungry till late evening when we get back home, at home things are not so good too, our cows were stolen therefore my parents are struggling to make us get basic needs.”
Similarly, Patrick Kipkurwo a class six pupil from Kasiela Village talks of his tribulations since his school was affected by the conflict last year.”Life has not been easy, you know as a boy one of my major work apart from school work is to tend to livestock, since these conflicts started we had lots of cows and most of them were forcefully taken away from us. The few remaining cannot meet the family’s needs. I am also worried when I go to graze them because I don’t know what will happen next. I trek for long distances to come to my school here in Arabal and we have no food to eat during lunchtime. The supply we used to get from the government has since stopped, we have no idea what happened.”A sad and tired-looking Patrick says.
Such stories of pupils like Mercy and Patrick wake one up to the reality of how cattle rustling affects sectors of social life in Baringo County more so education included. Mercy and Patrick and are not the only students affected by hunger while in school, several of their colleagues in school are going through the same challenge despite peace being restored.
Mr. Joel Kiptui, Headteacher Arabal Primary school confirms how worrying the hunger situation is among his pupils. “We are back in the session since January this year but sadly the school has not been receiving the school feeding program of Homegrown since then. Many of my pupils are forced to spend the day hungry because they come from very far and cannot be able to go home for lunch. Though half of my pupils did not report back after the conflict, many of them moved away with families, some were married off early, others got pregnant and others I have no account of where they are at the moment. “He confirms.
Joel says he has tried his best to see pupils resume learning, but he is facing some challenges which he hopes would be solved soon to have a conducive learning environment.”First, I am grateful for the security of ten officers who have been sent here by the government to protect the school from attacks, however, they have no place of their own to operate from, and they have been forced to take one of the classrooms which they use as their home, also I have a shortage of teachers, no teacher wants to be deployed here, the school runs from Early childhood development to class eight and I have only six teachers to teach the 150 pupils who reported. I had 246 pupils before the attacks.”
District Education Office in Marigat District, Baringo County is fully aware of this problem of hunger. According to Gichuki Kimani, Education Standards Quality Assurance Office, Marigat Sub-County, several schools in the cattle rustling zones have not been receiving food since they opened schools this year. Their records indicate Arabal, Sinoni, Kapindusum, Kasiela, Chemorongion, Chebinyiny, Nyimbei, Sambaka and Keon primary schools have not been getting food from the Home Grown School Feeding Program. ”The schools were in the program but when conflict arose probably they were removed because they closed for a long period. We did a letter to the principal secretary early in the year raising the issue, but we have not received any response in that regard we hope will be sorted out soonest.”
Gichuki narrates how other challenges continue to affect education in Baringo.” I am dedicated to fighting tirelessly for children in this region to access quality education. There are shocking stories of early marriages and cross-border conflicts in this region, especially cattle rustling.
“I recall us getting reports during the climax of the fights about how one of the schools was turned into a home by a notorious Pokot militia involved in the attacks who decided to move with his many wives to a school and gave each wife a classroom as a home. He gave each of his many wives a classroom each as a house .”A shocked Gichuki says.
”I tell you it is tough working here, leave alone the cattle rustling issue, there are other deep-rooted issues among communities here that I have to deal with. One of them is early marriages. house . Such horrifying stories indeed reflect the tough situations people have to endure during conflict while their children miss school because of insecurity.
Some parents who have greed for livestock marry off their young girls and I have made mechanisms to rescue them. I work closely with chiefs to see these girls go back to school. We lock some parents in police sales because of such offenses. I had a case some time back with a parent who had 200 cows and married off his young daughter claiming he had no money. He was locked in a cell for two days until he surrendered and was willing to get back the child to school and sell some of the livestock for the upkeep of the schoolgirl. These are common scenarios here and I must say I fight for education for children here.”He concludes.
