Ministry of Education on the spot over schools inspection tours
Western
By
Jackline Inyanji
| Jun 09, 2026
Questions abound over the Ministry of Education's decision to exclude health experts from inspection tours of schools to ascertain health standards and safety risks in the institutions.
The Kenya Environmental Health and Public Health Practitioners Union (KEHPHPU) raised the concerns just a couple of days after the ministry announced that government officials would conduct thorough inspection exercises in all boarding schools to assess facilities and the learning environment.
Speaking after a visit to Lugulu Girls National High School, KEHPHPU Secretary-General and CEO Brown Ashira noted that the ministry has been evaluating health standards in various institutions without involving trained health experts.
He urged Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba to urgently intervene and ensure public health officers are included in the vital national exercise to ascertain public health standards in schools and give recommendations.
“We want to sound an alarm to the Ministry of Education. We have seen that the education ministry has developed a checklist going around schools without public health officers, and yet public health officers are the first responders to any outbreak. We are the authorised officers as per public health act cap 42 and 254, to be able to mitigate any issue to do with outbreak. We are not happy when officers go around schools collecting information on safety in the absence of experts; the knowledge and input of PHOs is critical,” Ashira noted.
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He added, “We are telling them that they must work together since this is a multi-sectoral arrangement. They must be able to liaise with the county public health officers and work as a team.”
The union’s national treasurer, Mohammed Ali, echoed the sentiments and emphasised the critical role health experts play in national health security.