Nairobi--Teachers working in Kenya's restive north, where a group of their colleagues were massacred late last year by Somalia's Shebab Islamists, protested in the capital Tuesday to demand a transfer.
A group of around 200 teachers gathered in front of the Kenyan parliament and behind a banner showing gruesome photographs of the November incident during which 28 non-Muslims -- most of them school teachers -- were dragged from a bus and executed. --
"We saw our colleagues shot by the Shebab. Some of us lost a girlfriend, some their husband, some their son and daughter. We are traumatised," said John Osoro, a secondary school teacher who works in Wajir, close to the border with Somalia.
The teachers said they earn a maximum of 16,000 shillings ($175) a month, which they argued was inadequate pay given the almost constant threat of attack in the restive northeastern region -- the target of a string of recent cross-border attacks by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamists.
"You aren't sure when they hit. You can be in your house, in a hotel, in a public place watching football and you hear a bomb blast," Osoro said.
Kenya's northeast is Muslim-majority, although most state employees are generally from Christian-majority areas elsewhere in the country.
Following last year's attack, six trade unions representing doctors, dentists and teachers advised their members to leave the area until the Kenyan government could ensure security.
Attacks by the Shebab against the northeastern towns of Wajir, Mandera and Garissa have intensified since Kenya sent troops into Somalia in 2011.
The Shebab was also behind the September 2013 attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall that killed at least 67 people.
AFP
