Cabinet Secretary for Education George Magoha has pointed a blaming finger at the school of the principal of Tot High school for the tragedy that befell his school.
This after a school bus driver was killed 13 students and two teachers got injured in a banditry attack in Kerio Valley.
Magoha said the Principal errored in allowing the school bus to operate past 6 pm.
“The rule is that no bus should move beyond 6.30 period, and we must implement that rule. It doesn’t matter who is in it. If a bus is out beyond 6.30, it should go to the nearest police station and it should stay there," he said.
The 10 pm incident occurred along the Arror-Mogil road near Tot in Elgeyo Marakwet County.
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The group of students was from an academic tour when the raid occurred.
They were in three busses belonging to Tot Day School bus, the Kerio Valley School bus, and the Mogil school bus.
Magoha has now directed that schools should not operate past 6:30 pm and urged the police to intercept when such cases occur.
"We have to protect the lives of our children, because the deaths that have occurred, are really careless and useless. It should not have happened. From my perspective, I have officers in the field…if we find out that school buses which have yellow colour…intercept them, it is better to have the children hungry overnight than dead," Magoha said.
The ambush was staged near Chesuman primary school in Marakwer West as they were returning to Tot High school in Marakwet East.
Mogil secondary school bus was first to be raided resulting in the death of its driver.
The bandits, after killing the driver, later began shooting indiscriminately
Elgeyo Marakwet county commissioner John Korir confirmed the incident and said a security team had been deployed to the scene to assess the situation.
"These bandits must be found and brought to book. This is too much and unacceptable", said former IG Joseph Boinnet who visited the injured, as quoted by the Star.
