In the past, corporal punishment has provoked disaster with teachers either beating students to death or causing such extensive body damage that the students have had to be hospitalized. In other cases, students were forced to drop out of school out of fear that they would be on the receiving end of a beating.

A UN report published in 2005 showed that severe beatings were still a normal occurence in Kenyan schools in spite of the ban on corporal punishment in schools. The report urged the government to step in and enforce the ban which it did by releasing a legal notice reminding KNUT and school officials of the ban.

In 2006, a UN study on Violence against Children set 2009 as a deadline for all countries to ban corporal punishment. The study, conducted by individuals from all over the world, argued that caning or beating children amounts to child abuse citing the fact that "hitting people is wrong- and that children are also people. Corporal punishment of children, it adds, breaches their fundamental rights to respect for their human dignity and physical integrity. Its legality anywhere breaches the right of children to protection under the law. Urgent action is needed in every region of the world to respect fully the rights of all children-- the smallest and most fragile of people."

The report also found that Kenyan teachers breached not only international law, but also Kenyan law on corporal punishment in schools. "For most Kenyan children, violence is a regular part of the school experience. Teachers use caning, slapping, and whipping to maintain classroom discipline and to punish children for poor academic performance. The infliction of corporal punishment is routine, arbitrary, and often brutal. Bruises and cuts are regular by-products of school punishments, and more severe injuries (broken bones, knocked-out teeth, internal bleeding) are not infrequent. At times, beatings by teachers leave children permanently disfigured, disabled or dead. Such routine and severe corporal punishment violates both Kenyan law and international human rights standards."

Recent media reports indicate that little has changed even as Kenyan opinion seems to be in favor of the ban. Richard Mbuthia here recalls his experience as a child and advocates for the retention of the ban. Elsewhere on kenyaimagine, the same topic is visited and consensus revolves around the retention of societal duty to children and their upbringing. Whereas it is indisputable that children need firm and clear instruction, this needn't extend to physical punishment.

Primary school aged-children need nurturing and protection, but it is they more than any other children who bear the brunt of teacher violence. These students do need a firm hand, indeed some experts even advocate for slight smacking. A court ruling (Isaac Mwangi Wachira v Republic Court of Kenya (Nakuru), promoted, "discipline of a child under what is considered "reasonable" by most people." This however is not adequate protection as half of Kenyan parents would approve of corporal punishment in schools, (Population Communication Africa, 2004) a fact that is not surprising given that many of these very parents also hit their children.

Bringing up a Kenyan child is made more challenging by the facts that many families insist on sending their children to boarding schools, especially in their high school years. While there is nothing especially wrong with this, it amounts to relinquishing the role of parent to school administrators and teachers at the most crucial transitional stage of children's lives. The suffering of hardship on boarding school creates a kinship among the students, a brotherhood and sisterhood as it has become the modern initiation into adulthood for Kenyan youth. It is also at this stage of life that young people develop life-long relationships and trust with their peers. When this kinship is further strengthened with their common fear of the administration, the enemy, an atmosphere of mistrust develops and the youth are left without adult guidance. Orphaned in this way, their relationship with their teachers is better described in terms of the fear provoked and not any respect. Crucially, at a turning point in the child's life, and without adult supervision to declare otherwise, the perception of authority as inherently abusive is implanted in the young mind.

Physical injury is however not the only reason why corporal punishment is wrong. Beating, like pinching and hitting continues a trend of child abuse that promotes a mindset that would easily justify bullying of others. It encourages taking physical advantage of those smaller and weaker than the perpetrator. Furthermore, continued pain leads to depression and unhappiness and in some youth an enduring feeling of hopelessness.

Alternatives to physical abuse on the other hand allow a child to develop self-discipline as they learn early on that bad behavior will have a direct impact on their lives. If such consequences are real and relatable to the adult world, the child grows up to deal with their problems in an adult fashion. The modern teacher need only be persuasive and assertive to impose their will on their students, eschewing actions that would serve to humiliate or belittle the students. Clearly defined boundaries on what constitutes accepted and inappropriate behavior, coupled with swift and fair punishment for transgression will often suffice in instilling a culture of discipline on the students. Praise and reward also reflect on the reality of the adult world and together these serve to inculcate self-discipline as the child is reared knowing that life and society punish wrong and reward what is right.