Kenyan president condemns police tear-gassing of primary school students
Students flee after tear gas is fired at the Nairobi school
The firing of tear gas at a crowd of school children in Kenya has been condemned as 鶹APPdeplorable鶹APP by the country's president.
A senior cabinet minister also personally apologised to the students when he visited the school in Nairobi 鶹APP the day after police acted during a demonstration to save a school playground from property developers. Five children needed hospital treatment after at Lang'ata Road Primary School.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery told the students today:鶹APPI would not expect a trained officer to throw teargas at children. I want to assure you that action will be taken against the officers.鶹APP
The children had returned from a two-week break after a teachers' strike. They were gassed when they tried to break down a barrier erected around the school playground by a so-called 鶹APPland grabber鶹APP. MrNkaissery added:鶹APPWe are sorry, the developer must bring down the remaining wall within 24 hours.鶹APP
Students scramble up a bridge after tear-gassing
President Uhuru Kenyatta blamed his Lands Secretary Charity Ngilu and National Lands Commission chairman Muhammad Swazuri for the row that led to the incident, . He said:鶹APPIf the minister and Swazuri knew that the Lang鶹APPata school playground was grabbed, what did they do? They have more to answer than the police.鶹APP
that the wall around the playground was built during the night on December 12. In a review of the 鶹APPlandgrab鶹APP, National Land Commission Chairman Muhammad Swazuri visited the playground last week and said he would liaise with the county government to have it available to the children when schools reopened after the strike.
A report released last year by a taskforce on education showed 36 out of Nariobi鶹APPs 205 schools had parts of their land grabbed.