The government yesterday said it will deploy specialised forces in the North Eastern region to offer security to teachers following increased cases of Al Shabaab attacks even as it asked the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to deploy local tutors in the area.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki (pictured) told MPs that although they have enough regular police officers to offer security they are not well trained to deal with new innovations that the Al shabaab have been devising on a daily basis.

Appearing before the Education committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julias Melly to give a status report on the security of teachers in the region, Kindiki revealed that owing to the current insecurity in Garissa, Mandera and Wajir counties, the government has set up safe houses for non locals where they have been residing.

He told MPs that the teachers are no longer being housed in police stations as they have become a target from the locals who have turned against them as well as the al-Shabaab militants.

Tight security

Hew said the police have been asked to tighten security during opening and closing day as this is when most attacks happen owing to the fact that teachers travel together.

He said: “we have enough police officers but the current challenges in the Northern region require more specialised elite police and that is why we need more resources. Some of these attacks we are seeing are being fuelled by the local communities and we want leaders to tell them to stop this because they need these non-locals,”

Non local teachers

He added: “We have stopped housing of non-local teachers in police stations because of the fragmented new innovations that these al-Shabaab’s have come up with as they have fragmented grenades that can attack someone when they are two to three kilometers away,” he said. While blaming the increased attacks on the situation in Somalia, Kindiki also proposed a raft of measures which they want TSC to deploy in order to protect the non-local teachers whom he said were their greatest target.

Apart from employing locals, he also proposed that TSC should not allow non locals to stay for long in the said area due to their mental status as well as because some of them would be influenced to join the terror groups. He however said the government will not remove non-local teachers from the region adding that would be falling for the Al-Shabaab antics.

In addition, he also proposed that TSC should offer scholarships for students in the said region to study teaching so that they can be deployed locally as well as recommended for the staggering of opening and closing dates to avoid teacher’s travelling together where they become a target.