Garissa schools instructed to admit 3,000 children idling at camps after floods

Schools in Garissa County have been directed to admit the more than 3,000 children idling in camps for the internally displaced after their institutions were destroyed by heavy rains and the resultant floods.

County Director of Education, Abdihamid Maalim Ali, instructed the headteachers to admit the learners unconditionally.

Families displaced by the overflow of the River Tana have been camping at the Garissa Police Training Centre and the football pitch at the Water ministry's premises.

They told The Eastleigh Voice that they were worried about their children as they were idling in the camps, yet schools had reopened for the second term, as headteachers had denied them admission for lack of transfer letters from their previous schools.

Abdihamid noted that it was unfair for the school heads to deny the children the opportunity to learn amid other families' troubles following the natural calamities.

"I am aware of the presence of over 3,000 children whose families were displaced from the neighbouring Mororo. We have already communicated that they should be allowed in the local schools until the floodwaters subside," he said by phone on Sunday.

He warned that action would be taken against headteachers who defy the instruction.

Children play in floodwaters at Hatata Primary School in Mororo, Tana River County, on May 26, 2024 (Photo: Issa Hussein/EV)

Mwanajuma Hamaro, the camp leader at the Garissa Police Training Centre, said they were displaced from Mororo in Tana River County and that their local Hatata Primary School was still submerged by water,

Mwanajuma said county education officials visited ahead of the May 13 school reopening date announced by President William Ruto and told them to take their children to local institutions but that they were denied the opportunity.

"We tried to get access to the local primary schools but were denied opportunities for lack of transfer letters. Schools were reopened but our children have been loitering in the camp," she said, adding that some displaced persons were voluntarily teaching the students, albeit without books and under a tree within the camp.

Hatata Primary School in Mororo, Tana River County, as pictured on May 26, 2024 (Photos: Issa Hussein/EV)

Ronald Stephen Khisa, a displaced parent at the camp, said the volunteers help to keep the children busy and out of trouble.

"I feel sorry for these children. Their time is being wasted and they are missing the opportunity for education yet their peers are in school," he said, and appealed for the intervention of education officials.

At the Water ministry grounds, which is hosting about 650 families from Tana River, children were also yet to report back to school.