• Mbai says media is right to highlight such issues.
• Says it is a bit of a shame, but they are working on it
The story in Tuesday's Star newspaper of a school where children learn in dilapidated classrooms in Kitui East is true, MP Nimrod Mbai has said.
He said the media is right to highlight such issues. He said he did not at all deem it to be bad publicity.
Speaking on the phone, Mbai said he took the report highlighting of the plight of the learners and teachers positively and hoped humanitarian organisations and people of good will would come to help.
“It is true Mbukoni School, which has pupils up to Standard 6 has only 29 poor parents who cannot mobilise adequate funds to construct decent classrooms and other structures. They badly need external support,” Mbai said.
He said the onus of developing infrastructure in primary and secondary schools rested on his shoulder, and he had made a move to assist the school through his CDF kitty. “I met the school board of management last year, and we have allocated Sh1.6 million for two classrooms to be done in 2019-20 for a start,” Mbai said.
He said, however, the school had been in existence for six years, and he has been MP for only one and a half years. “It is a bit of a shame, but we are working on it.”
He urged Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu to make arrangement to build a modern CDF classroom at the school.
In the Star report, the school was reported to have cracked mud walls, lacking in desks, doors, textbooks, teachers, playing field, teachers and staff room.
Further, the report said the school that did not have piped water, neither connected to power grid and useless tablets for digital learning. The school community shared shallow pit latrines.
Parents and teachers were begging for help, so they can upgrade the school and compete with better-funded schools.