Hundreds of Kenyan teachers sacked over sexual abuse of young students

Senior government official Ahmed Hussein said most of the victims were between 12 and 15 years old. The problem was revealed thanks to a nationwide confidential helpline set up to help abuse victims.

It’s been revealed that the problem is much more widespread than previously thought, within most cases having occurred in rural primary schools.

Last year, 600 male teachers were made redundant, while 550 teachers this year have lost their jobs for either kissing, touching or impregnating girls, out of a total nationwide staff of 240,000.

"A number of them have been taken to court, and they have been sentenced accordingly," Hussein said.

Brian Weke, programme director for a child rights foundation in Kenya called the Cradle, agreed the problem was widespread.

Citing a case in Nyanza province last year, Weke said "I found that in one primary school we had over 20 girls who were pregnant and nearly half were actually impregnated by the teachers themselves."

However, he said officials investigating the abuse cases were not passing on vital information to get convictions.

"Our biggest problem is the fact that the district education officers do not report the matters to the police," Weke told police.

It’s been reported that teachers who are caught defiling their students often end up paying the parents in order to prevent cases going to court.