SUPPLEMENTARY DEFENCE AGAINST

TEACHERS SERVICE COMMISSION’S

INTERDICTION DECISION

CASE NO: 0217/12/2018/2019

NAME: RICHARD M MWANGI

TSC NO: 816613

COUNTY: MARSABIT

SUB – COUNTY: CHALBI

DATE:

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MR. FRED WASIKE MACHIMBO
P. O. BOX 30200 - 251
TEL: 0708 – 798320
KITALE

THE SECRETARY
TEACHERS SERVICE COMMISSION
P. O. BOX PRIVATE BAG -00100
NAIROBI

RE: INTERDICTION FROM 23RD NOVEMBER, 2019

The above matter refers.

BACKGROUND
I am Mr. Wasike Fred Mchimbo of National Identity Card
No.32697641, Kenyan Nationality born in 1994.
In my childhood, I did desire the manner and style teachers used
to conduct themselves and the overwhelming honour and respect
accorded to them in the society. This factor motivated me to
resolve that with hard work and prayers, I would join the teaching
fraternity. My desired dream was fulfilled on 2014 when my
journey to pursue teaching commenced. I therefore completed my
teaching course on 2018 and employed as a Biology and
Chemistry teacher on 29th May, 2019.
Since then, I have been diligently & faithfully committed to my
job, and discharging my services in Maikona Girls’ Secondary
School till 23rd N0vember, 2019 when I was summoned to
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appear before the disciplinary board of management committee
vide the letter dated 12th November, 2019 for the following
allegations:
1. Administering corporal punishment to my students.
2. Insubordination of the office of the Principal by failing to
respond to show cause letter written to me on 22nd
October, 2019.
The outcome of the said meeting was an Interdiction Letter that is
not dated which stated that I serve an interdiction with effect
from 23rd November, 2019. As per the said Board of
Management Meeting’s proceedings, it is stated that this is the
disciplinary measure I deserved.

PREAMBLE
I humbly seek for leave in advance for you to admit this
Supplementary Defence to be deemed duly on record for your
kind consideration in hearing and subsequent determination of
the discipline case before your Honourable office.
I also humbly plead that this Supplementary Defence be read
together with any other initial relevant Defence on record. This
Supplementary Defence and any other initial relevant Defence on
record emanated from the disciplinary process enshrined in the
proceedings of the Board of Management meeting dated 23rd
November, 2019 which led to the rendering of the interdiction
decision that I am faulting.

GROUNDS OF DEFFENCE
1. I fault the procedure used to convene the Board of
Management meeting and the ultimate results thus the
undated interdiction letter to me.
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2. I fault the manner in which the Tribunal/Panel interpreted
my response to it to mean I admitted liability.
3. I fault the Tribunal/Panel for disregarding my grievances of
tribalism, discrimination, and provocative and/or abusive
language exhibited by my students.

4. The Board of management under the leadership of the

Principal as its secretary is insincere, and lacks good will to
both the school and I.

5. I fault the Tribunal/Panel for disregarding my grievances

and/or concern of the indiscipline and unruly behavior
dominantly exhibited by my students.

6. I fault the Tribunal/Panel for disregarding my concern of lack

of team work among the teachers, students, and subordinate
staff; and the issue of inferiority complex exhibited by the
Principal, which adversely cripples the academic
performance of the students.

7. I fault the Tribunal/Panel for ignoring to consider the

administrative track record of the Principal and how it
adversely impacts on the overall performance of the school.

8. I fault the Tribunal/Panel for deliberately ignoring my prayer

to be given a benefit of the doubt by granting me a chance to
continue serving, and my humble request to be transferred
to another school.

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 9. I fault the Tribunal/Panel for totally ignoring my precise
explanation of the circumstance under which I delayed to
respond to the Show Cause Letter on who’s the allegation of
insubordination of the office of the Principal is premised.

PARTICULARS OF THE GROUNDS OF DEFENCE

Generally, as a teacher, I am well vast with the regulations and
rules governing the teaching fraternity. It is a cardinal rule that
whenever any disturbance and/or animosity occurs in an
education institution like Maikona Girls’ Secondary School, the
head of the Institution is obligated to carry out investigation and
the ultimate findings to be compiled in a formal comprehensive
report. Such findings shall then guide the head of the institution
which mechanism to deploy in resolving the issue at hand.
There was no such investigation, neither was there any findings
compiled in a formal report, at least to establish the possible cause
of the allegations levelled against me. The Board of Management
Committee having gone ahead to deliberate upon issues that had
no investigative report was far premature and unfair for it to
arrive at a decision it purports to be an interdiction letter.
The Principal rightly confirms that she did issue me with a
warning letter, and at one point, even the Deputy Principal
confirms having been present and witnessed one of the incidents.
In my view, the Principal and the Deputy Principal have
administrative liberty to convene a staff meeting and discuss and
find the causes and possible solutions of any arising undesirable
behavior like the one I am being accused of. I therefore fault the
Principal and the Deputy Principal for having side stepped such
an important administrative procedural obligation; and instead
rushed to convene a Board of Management Meeting with

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misleading and ungrounded information, which rendered an
interdiction disciplinary measure without consideration of the
real cause.
Assault in nature is a criminal offence irrespective of where it
occurs. It is absurd for and unbelievable for the Principal and the
Deputy Principal to allege that they witnessed me assaulting my
students and never took any preventive measure other than
resorting to writing letters--!! The Principal and the Deputy
Principal have not and did not demonstrate to the Board of
Management Committee the extent of damage caused to the
students by my alleged assault. In my view, the first step a
responsible and reliable administrator who doubles as a parent
would have taken was to take the affected student to the nearest
medical facility after being administered with First Aid by the
school health unit.
After which, the Principal was to report the incident to the nearest
Police Station for the criminal proceedings to be commenced
against me. The Principal and the Deputy Principal have not and
did not table any Medical Report nor Police OB Number to
establish that this was done. Therefore, the question is, what is
the measure of the degree and/or thin line that separates the
normal punishment from corporal punishment --?
The purported Witness Statements on record in my view are an
afterthought, framed maliciously to incriminate me. Any blind
person looking at them keenly will definitely notice serious
mistakes which denote that, either, the authors were under
pressure of supervision, or they were in some sort of hurry
necessitated by duress and/or undue influence. For instance, the
Witness Statement of Chula Kanchoro of 4 West, Admission
Number 691 has a date that was inserted. One can clearly notice
there is a discrepancy between the font of the pen used to write

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the victim’s admission number, the date, the word Form 4 West,
and the rest of the wordings.
It beats anybody’s logic for a student to summon the Principal as
her witness who witnessed her being assaulted by a mere
classroom teacher---!! Administratively, among all other students
the victim claims witnessed the incident are supposed to have
recorded statements as well to enable the Board of Management
Committee the consistency of the same, and the magnitude of the
alleged assault by myself.
As well, the Witness Statement of Gumato Denge of Form 2 has
the same anomaly. The last statement that reads, “The day he
touched my breast it was on 9/10/2019,” is in my view an
insertion because of the discrepancy of the font of the pen that
was used to write it and the rest of the wordings.
The Witness Statement of Gumato Bonaya of Form 1 is not
clean either. The last statement that reads, “This happened on
18/10/2019,” in my view is an insertion due to the well noticed
discrepancy of the font of the pen used to write it and the rest of
the wordings.
It is my humble conclusion therefore, that all these efforts were
made maliciously and in bad faith by those who are after
tarnishing my name in order to fit their case. As a matter of fact,
anybody keenly perusing these Witness Statements would
definitely tell that they were written after the Board of
Management Committee’s meeting. And indeed I confirm the
same because I was present in the said meeting and not at any
time was I shown any of these purported statements.
One of the fundamental functions of the Board of Management
whose secretary is the Principal is to work as a team for the
smooth running of the school. The Principal therefore as the
secretary of the Board of Management is tasked with

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administrative responsibility and/or obligation to keep updating
the Board Members of the happenings in the school. The Board of
Management in turn is to keenly assess and analyze every concern
being raised by its secretary. As an administrative organ, the
Board of Management is at liberty to carry out independent
investigation and formalize its findings in a report that can be
read together with that of the secretary when need be.
This is very important because in my view, it upholds firmness,
fairness, integrity, consistency, accountability, and transparency
especially in my case. The aforementioned ingredients therefore
rightly guide the Board of Management to arrive at a decision that
is sound; which in my view should be a long term solution to the
issue at hand. I therefore fault the Board of Management for
basing on the misleading information of the Principal to render a
very hash penalty of interdicting me without exploring all the
relevant avenues to establish the real cause of the allegations
levelled against me.
As it can rightly be observed, the Teachers Service Commission
representatives of both Chalbi and MOEST Sub – Counties were
in attendance of the Board of Management Committee held on
23rd November, 2019, herein referred to as the Tribunal/Panel.
In my view, it is negligence if not abuse of office for such high
ranked officers to attend a disciplinary Tribunal/Panel and be
part of the decision makers that I face an interdiction as the only
penalty without having carried out their own respective
independent investigation in the alleged issues. One wonders
which report they can produce if need be, and whether or not such
a report if any contains and/or meets the thresh-hold required to
warrant them to render the hash disciplinary measure of
interdicting me---!!
In essence as far as I am concerned, anybody looking at the
manner and style in which the whole process was carried out, it
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was a ‘one man’s show.’ Thus, the Principal waking up one
morning, because of reasons well known to her, she summons the
Board of Management Committee to meet on ungrounded
allegations; all members in attendance fall to her trap to render a
decision of interdicting me. This can be ascertained without doubt
from the Agendas of the said meeting. Can it be possible that in a
Girls’ School like Maikona Secondary, there could be no any other
agenda that would be discussed, even that of development issues,
or the overall academic performance of the school; other than
myself and the alleged corporal punishment---!!
The Principal is well aware of the high degree of indiscipline and
unruly behavior of virtually all the students in the said school.
This can be established by the series of strikes witnessed in the
school in the past. Not at any point was I and/or my actions
mentioned as the cause of the said strikes. Surprisingly, such an
agenda of students’ high degree of indiscipline and unruly
behavior was never part of the said Board of Management
meeting---!!
In fact, the Principal is not sincere and honest to incriminate me.
Her action to orchestrate the purportedly disciplinary process just
to interdict me, and she celebrates upon the same is inhuman and
unprofessional---!! Because in one of the incidents where the
Principal is purportedly mentioned as a witness to the victim, she
was supposed to take charge as the head of the school to punish
the student.
The Principal summoned a student in my presence. The student
ignored the Principal, and arrogantly walked away. It was the
same Principal who then sent me to bring the student to her---!!
One wonders which means and/or magic powers I would deploy
to fulfil the Principal’s instructions if not by laying my hand on the
student to force her respect the Principal’s call. In my view, with
these kind of proceedings, I can easily interpret that the Principal

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was maliciously setting me up to her trap. With this kind of
attitude, and deliberate witch-handing, the genuineness of any
information by the Principal regarding my case, is therefore
questionable if not unreliable to be used independently by any
credible disciplinary Tribunal/Panel to arrive at a sound decision.
In my view, the Principal should stop side stepping the real issues
facing the school and seek assistance from all the stake holders in
order to focus, identify, handle and settle the issues such as
students’ animosity, indiscipline and unruly behavior among
others which directly and adversely impact negatively to the
school’s academic performance. This is the main reason why we
are all in this school. That we should strive to leave it a better
place conducive and/or healthy for learning in terms of discipline
and performance of students.
It is not clear to me what the Principal intent to achieve by
sacrificing me as a sacred lamb.
As civilized and reliable citizens of this good Country, we should
collectively shun and/or condemn discrimination of any nature,
be it on tribal or religion affiliations. We should discourage the
use of reckless abusive language especially among learners which
trigger provocation and untold reactions to the affected people. I
did not choose to be born in Western Kenya. Therefore, it is
upheaval for somebody I call my student to abuse me as, ‘mutu
wa nywele ngumu arudi kwao,’ then I leave such a student
unpunished if indeed I mean well for this good Country as a
teacher.
Teamwork and proper coordination are key for the success of any
learning institution. And a successful administrator’s track record
speaks for itself. As aforementioned, I teach Biology and
Chemistry which are basically Science Subjects. It is the desire of
every teacher to strive and propel his students to the top of the
score-sheet. It is unfortunate that my tireless efforts to enable my
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students succeed despite of their indiscipline and unruly behavior
are being diminished by the very people who would celebrate
when we achieve.
However, pursuant to the provisions of the Doctrine of the Rule
of Natural Justice I humbly request for your good office
to give me a benefit of the doubt, and lift the Interdiction
Letter in place to enable me continue serving this
Country as per my commitment.
I fault the Board of Management Committee for deliberately
ignoring my explanation as to the inevitable circumstances that
resulted into the delay to reply to the Show Cause Letter, and
instead it upheld the Principal’s claim that I am guilty of in-
subordinating her office.
I still reiterate my initial sentiments before the Board of
Management Committee that I was engaged in an equally
important National exercise of invigilating National Examination.
The prevailing hostile terrain, security, and climate were unideal
for me to respond to the said letter promptly. That is why I
admitted being liable for the delay.
As well, the manner in which the said Show Cause Letter was
delivered to me is questionable. The Principal was well aware of
my absence from school due to the National duty of invigilating
National Examination. It was until the time I went back to school
that the secretary handed the said letter to me. Ironically, the time
limit stipulated in the said letter within which I was to reply to the
Principal had already lapsed---!! But I tried within my ability and
diligence to reply to the said letter within reasonable time.
In my view, virtue of just delaying to respond to a letter cannot
amount to insubordination of the Principal’s office. But as I stated
earlier, I can term this as an extension of intimidation, threats,
witch-handing, and monopoly of administrative powers attitude

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exhibited by the Principal. In essence, I was therefore left at the
mercy of the Board of Management to decide my fate. However,
the Board of Management total ignored and/or gave a deaf ear to
my genuine explanation, and instead upheld the reasoning and
desire of the Principal to find delay to respond to the said letter as
a key ground to interdict me.
In my view, the nature of offences levelled against me allow me to
be paid a half salary. But as I speak now, I have never earned a
coin since I was interdicted. I humbly request you to kindly lift the
interdiction letter in place and transfer me to a station that the
value of my skills as a teacher can be recognized, appraised and
appreciated.

MITIGATION
I am a parent, a father, a husband, a guardian, a responsible and
reliable citizen of Kenya serving this good Country as a Science
Subjects teacher. Both in my private life and in my life as a
teacher, I have never been found on the wrong side of the Law,
until the 23rd day of November, 2019 when I appeared before
the Board of Management Committee for allegations of
administering corporal punishment to my students and
insubordination of the office of the Principal. I am truly dedicated
to my duties as a teacher and like any other teacher, I am trying
my best to enable my students appear at the top of the score sheet
not only in my school Nationally.
Teaching as my profession is my only source of income, and I will
be subjected to grave sufferings together with my dependents if I
am dismissed at this tender age; given that I am the sole bread
winner of my family.
As I stated earlier, I am in teaching profession by heart and blood.
I am therefore optimistic of prospering to the highest level of my
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career, God willing. Remember the Biblical scripture, “---
the stone that was rejected became the Conner Stone---.”
I humbly request for apology if I have offended anyone knowingly
or unknowingly; and pray for the mercies of God to prevail, for He
is my key witness in this case and I totally submit to His will to be
done. I hereby attach copies of some of the documents to affirm
and/or attest to the fact that teaching is my only source of income,
livelihood, and passion.
I did not and I will never have any ill intention against my
students, and/or anybody whatsoever.
CONCLUSION
I humbly rest my case by affirming that the destiny of my future is
in your able hands. Kindly be human and considerate as you
explore all the relevant avenues which led to the Interdiction
Letter that is in place, and the legality surrounding its existence.
In my view, it is my humble submission that if the Commission
will appraise and/or uphold the manner, style and/or procedure
that was used in this particular case of mine, whose result was the
painful interdiction that I am serving, then it will set an extremely
harmful and dangerous precedent that will totally tarnish the
noble name of the teaching fraternity. This is due to the untold
and grave torture the innocent victims like myself will undergo
both physically and mentally.
I also humbly request the Commission to kindly list my
disciplinary case for Hearing within its reasonable time to enable
me canvas and/or expound precisely on what I have stated herein.
The Law of Equity states that, “seek justice with clean
hands and be granted the same---.” I take refuge to you with
clean hands seeking justice. I am prayerful with optimism that

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you will grant me the justice I desirably deserve. Because with
God, everything legitimate is possible. “AMEN.”
Yours faithfully

FRED WASIKE MACHIMBO,

TSC 816613
THE DEFENDANT
CC:
1. The Secretary
Board of Management
Maikona Girls’ Secondary School
MARSABIT

2. The Board of Management

Maikona Girls’ Secondary School
MARSABIT

3. The TSC Sub – County Director

CHALBI

4. The TSC Sub – County Director

MOEST

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