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Protests As Board Rejects New Teachers

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A teachers' recruitment exercise held in Kisii last week has been cancelled by the district education board.

About 1,000 interviewees, who flocked to the district education office on Friday, were disappointed when the officer, Mr James Ochieng, told them that the final decision was yet to be reached.

The job seekers had held Mr Ochieng hostage for several hours demanding to be told the results of the interviews. Only 103 of them will be picked to fill the advertised positions.

But yesterday, members of the board told the Nation that they had rejected a list compiled by the interviewing panel because "it had been doctored".

Kitutu Chache MP Jimmy Angwenyi, who attended last Friday's meeting, said the panellists had "deliberately ignored the guidelines issued by the Teachers' Service Commission".

"We felt as a board that there were glaring anomalies in the exercise since locals were replaced by outsiders, "he said adding that the board had asked TSC to repeat the exercise.

But speaking on telephone, Mr Ochieng and the Kisii Knut branch executive secretary, Mr David Mokamba, defended the panellists saying they had done their work competently.

"We followed the guidelines to the letter, Mr Ochieng said.

The panel, he added, had sent the names to TSC and was awaiting word on whether the exercise should be repeated.

Meanwhile, the recruitment of primary school teachers in West Pokot has been finalised.

Of the 123 candidates who were interviewed, 108 were employed and posted to various parts of the district.

In Trans-Nzoia District, 16 civic leaders want the just-concluded recruitment exercise nullified. In a press statement released yesterday, the leaders alleged that only outsiders were hired. They asked the district education board not to endorse the list of approved candidates.

Led by Nzoia county council chairman Christopher Makokha, the councillors threatened evict the teachers whom they described as "outsiders" from their respective schools.

The district education officer, Mr Francis Ochieng, was not available for comment. But an official at the education office, who declined to be named, dismissed the councillors' allegations as untrue.