The United Nations refugee agency in Kenya said investigations are underway into an attack by a group of South Sudanese refugees on refugee children and teachers in Kakuma Secondary and Greenlight Secondary School in Kakuma Refugee camp on 14 March.

UNHCR Spokesperson Yvonne Ndege told Radio Tamazuj today that nine teachers and thirty one students were injured in the attack, adding all the victims received medical attention and two teachers, who sustained serious injuries, were evacuated immediately to Nairobi for further treatment.

“There was also destruction of the school property and theft of the personal belongings of the students and teachers,” she said.

Yvonne further said Kenyan authorities had arrested 26 refugees including some student attackers and a community leader allegedly involved in the attack.

She pointed out that it was alleged that the attackers were against a financial contribution towards the education of children at secondary school, despite agreements reached on the matter in the camp. UNHCR pointed out that the group of attackers planned a violent attack instead of instead of seeking a peaceful solution to their concerns.

“Last year, nearly 5,000 learners graduated from 24 primary schools Kakuma. But the capacity of the 6 existing secondary schools is limited to 1,800. In order to allow a higher number of primary school graduates to study in secondary schools, education partners proposed to introduce two school-in-one system whereby the existing school structures would operate a shift system for students, morning and afternoon,” she said.

“This required the recruitment of additional teachers whose salaries could not be fully covered. The local authorities including the Deputy County Commissioner and the Camp Manager of the Refugee Affairs Secretariat, UNHCR and its education partners held a number of consultations with refugee communities to introduce the new system and seek their agreement on the costs incurred: each student would have to contribute KSH 3,000 per year (KSH 1,000 per 3 months/school term) to cover the salaries of the additionally recruited teachers.  The majority of the refugees were in agreement with this proposal and the learners started attending secondary schools in February 2018,” she explained.

The UN agency revealed that the incident led to closure of secondary schools temporarily in Kakuma.

“On 15 March 2018, the Kenyan authorities held a meeting with the refugee leaders explaining that violence against refugee children studying at school is not acceptable and that law and order should be maintained in the camp including in the public schools that are under the Ministry of Education. It was made clear that the alleged perpetrators of the attack would face the consequences of their actions under the Kenyan law,” UNHCR said.

UNHCR said it condemns any criminal act and will provide the necessary support for investigations being carried out by the Kenyan authorities to bring the perpetrators as well as those involved in the incident to justice.

Aweng Lueth Chol, head of the Upper Nile community in Kakuma camp, told Radio Tamazuj that 13 South Sudanese who were arrested for involvement in the attack on the schools have been released on bail.

He said an amount of KSH 13,000 was paid per one student arrested in Kakuma.