Several public secondary schools in Machakos County have been indefinitely closed due to student unrest.
The students are set to be sent home on Monday morning.
Among the affected schools is Mitaboni ABC Girls in Kathiani Subcounty, which has also been closed indefinitely.
The closures coincide with an ongoing strike by the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), which has escalated tensions in schools.
Kuppet’s Machakos branch secretary general, Musembi Katuku, confirmed the closures, stating that several schools will be sending students home on Monday.
Earlier on Sunday, Kuppet officials held a National Governing Council meeting and reaffirmed that their nationwide strike would continue. They emphasized that no teaching would take place in schools across the country and urged parents to collect their children.
“The schools are not operational, and they won’t be for the next week or even longer. Teachers will remain at home,” Kuppet Secretary General Akelo Misori said.
The first week of the third school term has been marked by protests across various regions as teachers, affiliated with Kuppet, push for their demands from the Teachers Service Commission.
Tensions were high at Machakos High School on Sunday evening as students demanded to be sent home. “It’s getting serious—they want to leave. They’re currently being addressed at the assembly,” a teacher at the school reported.
The teacher mentioned that the agitated students were instructed to return to their dormitories. However, some teachers living on the school premises, who had tried to calm the situation, were forced to flee when the students turned violent.
At the time of reporting, the situation at the school remained tense.
These developments follow incidents earlier in the week where some Kuppet members reportedly entered several schools in the county to remove teachers who were still working amid the ongoing protests.
Kuppet members have vowed to completely halt learning in all schools across the country until their demands are met by the government.