As sipili grows, people need exposure and change.

By Ann Kinyanjui

 In the recent past, Sipili trading centre was just small shanties and kiosks. The centre is an important business site serving a wider geographical area and big populations of people, majority of which are farmers and pastoralist. The living standards of the populations are not very good. Many people are struggling to make ends meet and poverty level is still high. Food security is affected by low rainfall.

 Sipili centre is connected to the rest of the country by a five kilometer stretch of rough road, linking up Sipili to the Kinamba-Nyahururu tarmac road. The road linking up sipili to Rumuruti is also muddy. The rough roads are usually messy during rainy seasons. 

After several years without electricity, the service was finally brought and Sipili started to grow at a higher rate. Many businesses started coming up and developing to big enterprises.

Other than businesses many schools were built. At first, Sipili secondary school was the only secondary school, in the area. But now there are a number of them for example; Lariak, Kio, Mithuri, and Ndurumo secondary schools. Many private secondary schools were also built thus encouraging education in the area. Primary schools both private and public were also started to meet the needs of a rising population. A good number of pupils however still drop out of school due to many factors such as poverty and HIV AIDS.  

In spite of the positive developments, lack of mobility and exposure has led to many people getting behind especially in their way of thought. It is possible to find a person who did not even go to school at all. A good number of people went to school in Sipili area from nursery school to secondary school. If such a person don’t get a good grade or does not join any university or college or secure a job in another area, he/she will end up settling down to live in Sipili and later marry or get married in the area. The point here is; their birth certificates, school certificates and later the death certificate will all read Sipili!

There is a challenge whenever people do not travel and get exposed to what takes place in the rest of the world. The latter is a big issue that needs to change. Many people are in this category and ways should be found to avoid such situations. The growth of Sipili town has brought with it many advantages and disadvantages.

During early days at least some circumstances like banking services could force people to travel, but since the introduction of agency banking and mobile money transfer services, it is no longer a must for one to travel to get the service. This is however good for cutting down on expenses, but it has also denied people a chance to travel to big towns to meet people from diverse backgrounds. 

The risk with people who lack exposure is that, if they happen to get a chance to travel to big cities, they may end up getting lost or needing someone to take them by the hand. They also risk losing their property to thugs. 

In view of this, majority of Sipili people needs exposure to enable them change their mindset.