Deputy President William Ruto. He urged pastoralist communities to educate their children. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
Deputy President William Ruto has urged pastoralist communities to educate their children in order to change their lives and have better opportunities.
This follows concerns that many children of school going age from the pastoralist communities are still out of school despite the introduction of free education.
Mr Ruto said some cultural practices portray pastoralists negatively and must be done away with.
DP Ruto told the regions’ MPs, MCAs and opinion leaders to dedicate their time to tackle such issues with a view to catching up with the rest of Kenyans.
He urged leaders from the regions to work together to increase enrolment and retention of pupils in schools.
The leaders were urged to address high dropout rates and children missing schools as they join their families to trek for long distances in search of water, food and pasture for their animals.
“People are viewing pastoralists as people who have denied their children the opportunity to go to school, people who are riddled with poverty or conflicts. We need to change this perception,”
“What is clear is that all those children who are not in school are those from the pastoral areas. We must not deny our children the chance to go to school. We must be forthright about such issues,” he said.
DP Ruto said the government was ready to partner with leaders from the pastoral communities to build boarding schools along the border areas to address the challenges of insecurity caused by banditry and cattle rustling incidents.
“We want to bring together all children from pastoral communities to be in one area so that their parents can regard each other as brothers and sisters and thus eliminate cases of insecurity,” he said.