Nairobi, KENYA: A section of Members of Parliament from the Coast have condemned some of the secondary school heads in the country for denying some pupils , form one slot in their schools on the basis of their religious affiliations.
In a media briefing at parliamentary buildings led by Kwale women rep Zuilekha Hassan and Mvita member of parliament Abdulswamad, they said that some schools have developed a tendency of turning away students whose faith do not commensurate with their schools’ policy terming it discriminative and violation of the constitution.
They vehemently warned such schools to stop such discriminative acts or else face the law.
They said that schools ought to stand religious tolerance following the fact that courts ruled that students should be allowed to freely exercise their religious rights in learning institutions across the country.
“We went to the court of appeal court the last parliament, and the court ruled that it is against the law for students to be denied to exercise their religious rights in various institutions of learning,” Zuleikha said.
AbdulSwamnad said that aggrieved legislators will swiftly formulate a basic education bill in a bid to criminalize such acts in the future.
“We are now contemplating drafting necessary amendments, with the basic education act, to give punitive measures.” He said.
He urged all schools in the country to embrace religious tolerance in their institutions so as to avoid confusion on religious matters.
