A teacher who caned a primary school pupil to death in Kenya has gone into hiding after the victim’s parents threatened to attack him.
The teacher, Isaac Gachoka, of Githungo Primary Primary School in Kieni Nyeri County reportedly beat the 12-year-old Kelvin Kaguira, to death for wasting five minutes on the school field when he should be in class for the afternoon lessons.
However, the school’s headteacher, Joseph Karume, has ruled out malice in the teacher’s action, stating that the boy was punished alongside five other boys who equally disobeyed instructions to return to their classes for the afternoon lessons billed to start at 1.45pm.
Karume also said that the boy died from the punishment because he was epileptic.
According to him, the boy had fainted on different occasions in the past.
Karume also defended the teacher’s decision to go into hiding, saying that the victim’s parents had threatened to attack him.
But in her reaction, the victim’s grandmother, Gladys Njoki Kaguira, denied the allegation that the boy was epileptic.
In the same vein, some of the students who were caned alongside the boy refuted the claim that they were beaten with a short stick which the headteacher produced.
The victim’s parents are taking up the issue with the area education officers, News24 reports.