CHIEF JUSTICE SLAMS ANTI
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT ADVOCATES!
I found this interesting - if only because no one else seems to have been saying what he has, and also because of an article that appeared on Page 8 of our Kenyan Daily Nation on Friday 22nd January this year.
BOY DIES AFTER TEACHER CANES HIM FOR LATENESS
'14 year old boy, in Standard 6, died after being caned by a teacher for coming to school late. Caning is banned in Kenyan Schools..' The boy was caned with nine strokes. He collapsed while he was being caned. This was excessive punishment to my mind.
There is no doubt in my mind that children are still being caned by teachers, even though they are well aware of the Ministry's directive New teachers joining our own private school are often found to be using the cane even against clear instruction not to do so. There are, no doubt, clear dangers to the child - or anyone - where corporal punishment is allowed without proper restraint and supervision, but should it still be on the statute book anyway?
In the 1950s teachers and parents could be arrested and sued for improper and excessive corporal punishment. But at that time International Law still permitted and accepted corporal punishment, as had been the custom and practice for more than time remembers. The change in thought came suddenly - within a very few years, and ever since we have seen mankind slowly protecting himself from hurt or pain of any description - from a headache to correction of any kind. Where this has been related to punishment for anti social behaviour it has not been seen to produce a drop in anti social behaviour as a whole. Our prisons are still as full as before - if not more so, and our educational institutions continue to riot, and discipline is increasingly more difficult to enforce.
Chief Justice Chidyausiku lifted the BAN on Caning in Zimbabwe on 15th June 2015 whilst requesting a careful and balanced consideration of caning as a disciplinary measure in his Country.
Later in the year, in November he was to challenge the Lawyers and other legalists by asking them 'to explain the impact of such an action on the behaviour of children in Zimbabwe.' He again 'asked the lawyers if it was prudent that Zimbabwe simply adopts the decisions of other countries ........in other Countries that don't allow corporal punishment, how do the children behave? Do you think it will be acceptable in Zimbabwe to have children going to school with knives and guns in their jackets? We hear of Zimbabwean teachers who have gone to teach in such countries, who have had to abandon the profession because the children are uncontrollable.'
It is interesting that recently the Chinese Government have found no reason to ban the cane in Schools, and that parents are quite happy to use it at home as well.
My personal opinion remains that Corporal Punishment should be established and permitted as part and parcel of criminal and anti social behaviour of all kinds, and that where improper implementation of this is discovered then it should individually be dealt with as it has been in the past.
Many like to quote the old adage 'Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child', and others deride this as from God. Actually these exact words are not found in the Bible as such. BUT the Bible does uphold, as necessary,corporal punishment, and the principles found in the Bible have their root in distant antiquity and have been found relevant and true. For example in Proverbs 13v24 it is written -
'He who spares his rod, hates his son,
but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.'
And again in Proverbs 19v18 -
'Chasten your son while there is hope,
and do not set your heart on his destruction.'
I see no lack of wisdom in these words - all embraced by Solomon who is believed to have been the one most endowed with wisdom ever to have lived. His Wisdom came from experience, and is confirmed and backed up by GOD, as His Word for our life. I can only personally remember being caned twice in my life - once by my parent for a serious misdemeanour in our home - and the other was at school for a fault mistakenly committed. I did not enjoy either occasion, but I was grateful for both, and I believe a lesson was learned which affected the rest of my life. I have never resented it, but instead have profited from it with thanksgiving.
I believe that King Solomon was also prophetic when he also wrote in Proverbs 16v25 -
'There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way of death.'
ONLY GOD knows and is able to communicate the Way that leads to LIFE - a healthy life spiritually and physically. MAN is not always right in the way he thinks, and is easily deceived into believing that he is even more intelligent that the One who Created him. GOD warns and exhorts us when He says
TRUST IN THE LORD with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding.
IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM, and He will direct your paths.
Do NOT be wise in your own eyes - fear the LORD. Provers 3v5-7
FINALLY for today, I feel truly ENCOURAGED by the words of the Hon. Chidyausiku; so refreshing to find at least one person who doesn't jest swallow what the rest of the world is saying, but examines everything in the light of his own culture and faith. Very refreshing. The Chief Justice actually deferred final judgement, but I hope he is finally courageous enough to stand with God rather than with Man.
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