Et angreb fra terrorgruppen Al-Shabaab i det nordlige Kenya i sidste uge kostede 28 mennesker livet. De 24 af dem var lærere. Nu flygter lærere og andre i stor stil længere sydpå. Sundhed og uddannelse lammes, og lokalsamfundet bliver offer.
NAIROBI, 28 November 2014 (IRIN): People in northern Kenya’s marginalized Mandera County face a devastating loss of basic services as teachers, healthcare workers and other state employees face calls to leave in the wake of a terrorist attack which claimed 28 bus passengers.
The victims, who included 24 teachers, were shot in the head on 22 November after being made to lie on the ground.
The Somali insurgent group Al Shabab said it carried out the attack.
In the aftermath of the widely condemned killings, several civil servants’ unions urged their members who are not indigenous to the larger northern Kenya region to leave until their security could be guaranteed.
“It’s a painful scenario to comprehend what has constantly befallen our members. Many have undergone painful deaths. We don’t want to contemplate what will happen next to them should they continue serving there,” Wilson Sossion, secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), told IRIN.
“We have called for better security for our members in the past but the government has failed to provide it. Now we want all teachers to move out from insecure regions and relocate to places deemed secure.”
Exodus of civil servants
According to local media reports, an exodus of civil servants has already begun on roads leading south.
And soon after the attack, dozens of people gathered with their suitcases at Mandera airstrip, waiting in vain for a government air lift.
Sossion said teachers had been targeted before. “We have witnessed cases where terrorists, [who] move from house to house, profile and target teachers. We want to avoid a similar thing once and for all by completely moving out from volatile regions. We are not talking of Mandera alone, but we want them [teachers] to move out from all insecure regions of the country.”
“Now we want all teachers to move out from insecure regions and relocate to places deemed secure”
Withdrawing means defeat
But others think this is wrong-headed.
“If you leave,” public service chief Joseph Kinyua told civil servants holed up in an army base in Mandera, “it will as appear as if we have surrendered our sovereignty to Al-Shabaab.
“Withdrawing labour will not help solve the region’s security problem,” Francis Atwoli, secretary-general of the Kenyan chapter of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions told IRIN.
“We are still insisting that the government provides security to ensure the safety of our workers. It has taken [the government] a lot of effort to create employment and they should do the same to protect the jobs by beefing up security. We want a situation where workers can work in any part of the country.
“Withdrawing will mean that we are defeated and thus falling into the traps of the enemy. We cannot accept defeat and succumb to their demands. What happened is unacceptable and we condemn it.”
Limited access to education, health care
