Nairobi — A primary school teacher killed in a suspected Al-Shabaab attack in Garissa County was dragged from his house after gunmen went door to door in staff quarters, a colleague who encountered the attackers moments earlier has recalled.
Stephen Fundi Msili, a teacher at Hulugho Primary School, was pulled from his room and shot dead just metres from his home after the militants first entered a neighbouring house, questioned another teacher, and confirmed that their intended target was not there.
"They came to my house first," said Agnes Kavata Kithunga, Msili's neighbour and a teacher at the same school.
"They asked me a few questions, then realised the teacher they were looking for was not in my room [and] they went straight to his house."
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Minutes later, Msili was forced outside and killed.
Brutal and deliberate
Another teacher, Meshak Sifuna, described the killing as brutal and deliberate.
"Our colleague was found in his house, taken out and shot," Sifuna said. "He was killed brutally, like an animal."
The attack has left teachers in Hulugho deeply shaken, with many saying they no longer feel safe in their own homes.
"I am traumatised," Kithunga said. "We lived in the same compound. If they could come to his house at night and kill him, then none of us is safe."
Teachers said that by Monday, no security assurances had been given by authorities, even as the bodies of Msili and a local chief who was also killed in the attack were removed.
Educators in the area have now issued an urgent appeal to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to relocate them to safer regions, warning that they will abandon their stations if no action is taken.
"We are ready to continue teaching, but not here," Sifuna said.
"If the TSC does not move us today, we will go to their offices in Garissa and stay there until our safety is guaranteed."
Kithunga said teachers had accepted postings in the region despite the known risks, but the latest attack has crossed a line.
"We came because there were no jobs back home," she said. "But we also have families. We cannot stay in a place where teachers are hunted in their houses."
The killing has reignited concerns over the safety of non-local teachers in Kenya's North Eastern region, which has previously witnessed targeted attacks that forced mass withdrawals and severely disrupted education services.
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