Kenya: six teachers arrested for forcing students to simulate sex scenes

DAY

Six teachers have been arrested in Kenya after a video emerged showing primary school students forced to fake sex as punishment, police say, an incident that sparked an outcry . 

In a 29-second video that has gone viral, four boys in school uniforms simulate sex acts under a tree in the schoolyard as teachers look on. The six teachers are heard in the background chatting and laughing as a shirtless child wipes tears from his face.

Police say the video 'exposing students to indecent acts' was recorded in Nyamache, a rural locality some 300 km west of the capital Nairobi.

Six teachers, five women and one man, were arrested and “are contributing to the investigation”, police said in a report seen by AFP. They will be prosecuted on appropriate charges, she added.

The incident has caused an uproar on social media in this largely conservative country.

The Minister Education Ezekiel Machogu said disciplinary proceedings would be initiated against the teachers and they would be fired if found guilty. 

Under Kenyan sexual offenses law, a person convicted of coercing another to commit an indecent act faces a prison term of at least five years.

Beyond this incident, the living conditions of the students in Kenya are regularly the subject of lively debate, whether or not it is appropriate to use corporal punishment, officially banned by law in 2001, or more recently on the length of school days.