Court forgives drunk and disorderly students, fines teacher

Nine students from Tala Academy, Machakos, who were arrested for allegedly being drunk and disorderly were on Wednesday forgiven and released to their parents and guardians.

The students were arrested together with their teacher and school bus driver on Tuesday in Nairobi during an official school tour.

Their release came after a children’s officer and an advocate, Ronny Akede, acting for The Cradle Children’s Foundation  pleaded with the magistrate to release the minors unconditionally.

The advocate and foundation officer told the magistrate that the children must have been in experimental mode and under influence of bad company.

The two further added that, if given another chance, the students would reform.

The Children’s Magistrate advised the parents, guardians and the school to ensure that the children go through counselling before being released back to class.

In a different court, the teacher who was with the children during the incident pleaded not guilty to a charge of failing to protect the children from alcohol.

Appearing before Children’s Magistrate Teresa Nyangene, the woman told the court that she was a college student and only works in the school part-time to raise her school fees.

She was released on a cash bail of Ksh.50,000 with an alternative bond of Ksh.200,000.

Over at the the traffic court, the driver of the 13-seater matatu pleaded guilty to a charge of carrying excess passengers and was fined Ksh.40,000.

Addressing the press after attending the court session, Cradle’s Executive Director, Michael Wesonga urged schools, parents and guardians to take full charge of children to avoid any more such incidents.