Education CS George Magoha bans portable hand sanitizer in schools

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has banned small-bottled hand sanitizers in schools.

Speaking on Wednesday, the CS asked teachers to confiscate all small bottles of hand sanitizers found among students.

The CS had met with education stakeholders at Our Lady of Fatima Girls Secondary School in Kariobangi North, Nairobi County where they discussed the progress on resumption of learning.

CS Magoha noted that the portable sanitizers had been used to start fires in some schools.

"I want to tell teachers that they must not allow small-bottle sanitizers into schools. If any child has portable sanitizer, it should be taken and kept and given when the child is leaving school.

“We have already seen that a fire was started using a sanitizer in one of the schools,” he stated.

As learning resumed earlier in the month, the Ministry of Education directed that hand sanitizer would only be handled by teachers.

School heads were further directed to ensure that only five litres of the sanitizers would be present at the school at any one time.

The CS's statement comes in the wake of a dormitory fire at Cheborge Boys Secondary School, Kericho County where the cause of the fire is yet to be revealed.