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By:
Kiundu Waweru and Brigid Chemweno | |||||||||
| Posted:
Apr,08-2015 11:33:38
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Kenya: The Garissa University College lecturers, who have been missing out in the institution’s massacre script, have finally spoken out.
They were flanked by the Universities Academic Staff Union ( UASU) officials at the Uniafric House, in what the Secretary General, Muga K’Olale, described as a crisis meeting.
A seemingly angry K’Olale had several demands towards the government, the first one being that they should come clean on the fate of the missing students.
“We know 152 students to be dead and 166 are unaccounted for. We fear that they might have been kidnapped by Al-Shabaab, and the government should come clean about their whereabouts,” Muga K’Olale said.
This is not clear from the Government, though at the Chiromo Funeral Parlour, several families say they are yet to identify their children. Also, on the number of dead students, the government puts the official figure to be 142.
At the meeting, the lecturers expressed fear about the security of their jobs, and K’Olale demands from the government that they should be relocated with immediate effect.
“We are meeting tomorrow with the Moi University Council to discuss the plight of the 27 lecturers. They must be assured of their job security, and they should not lose their benefits.” He added that the Moi University Vice Chancellor has confirmed that the University is making arrangements to accommodate the lecturers before May 25. One of the GUC lecturers and the UASU Garissa chapter Secretary General Walter Kodipo says that when the Kenya Defence Forces rescued them from the staff quarters, they had no time to pack and they lost personal belongings, including computers and Ipads. “They are now living like internally displaced persons,” said K’Olale. “We expect the government to relocate the staff from Garissa and provide transport and security,” he added. At the same time, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Jacob Kaimenyi, while speaking at the Harambee House during a joint ministerial statement on the Garissa massacre, reported that the Garissa University College students will be integrated in Moi University campuses across the country. But the issue of insecurity took centrestage, with UASU putting the government on the spotlight for failing to protect the students despite there being a security warning two weeks before the attack. The UASU added that after the security threat, they immediately had a meeting with the Vice Chancellors to discuss the measures to be taken. “The security of the country rests at the doorstep of the President, Inspector General of Police and Interior Cabinet Secretary,” said K’Olale. He added that the massive deaths of the students would have been prevented if the security intelligence report was acted upon. Similarly, UASU wants the government to allocate part of the next financial budget to universities’ security. | |||||||||
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