BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
The unrelenting fight by parents to compel the government to reopen schools remains with Education CS George Magoha unsure as to when learners’ will resume classes.
A defiant Prof Magoha castigated the media saying he had not shifted from his earlier position to open in person schools in January 2021.
But parents who had filed a petition in the Constitutional Court are adamant that there are no justifiable reasons for the continued closure of schools.
Appearing before Justice James Makau, parents insisted that schools ought to be reopened without any further delay.
Their lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui informed the court that even after being served with a court order on August 25, 2020 neither the Cabinet Secretary for Education Magoha nor for Health Mutahi Kagwe have filed responces, explaining reasons for the continued closure.
The parents lamented that the Government had reported falling number of new Covid-19 infections and learning should therefore resume.
Further they argued that the out of school children are now roaming freely without any supervision from adult caregivers and without any interventions of whatever nature by the Ministry of Health.
Justice Makau granted the parents the plea to use a website to publicise the pendency of the Court proceedings to all school enrolled parents and caregivers in Kenya to express interest in supporting the case if they wish.
The parents have in compliance with this order put up a website, www.openkenyaschools.com where interested parties can peruse court documents filed and post any concerns or support of the case as they wish.
The court also extended its ban on Community Based Learning which the Teachers Service Commission was championing.
Justice Makau declined to lift the ban, as sought by the Education CS and TSC.
The Court said the hearing of the case be fast-tracked in order to decide on the issues affecting Kenya’s children as complained of by the parents.
Education CS sought 14 days to file his reply which was deemed by the Court unnecessarily long given that they were served with court papers on August 25.
The parents in Court accused the Education Cabinet Secretary of acting in bad faith to buy time to delay the case.
They accused Magoha of treating the interests of school enrolled children and learners with contempt and casually yet the Constitutional demand was to treat the best interests of children with priority.
The case will be back on Court on October 6, 2020 when the Judge will give a Judgement date.
The parents wanted the case decided before the end of September 2020 to enable children return to school without losing more time, but the Cabinet Secretary for Education opposed this.
