By Dennis Kipkirui
After Laikipia Rural Voices (LRV) highlighted
the plight of pupils in Bondeni Primary School in Laikipia West District on 24th
May2012, help trickled in quickly for the school. Leaders from different walks
of life converged three weeks later to raise funds for the school which is
located in the semi-arid areas of Kenya. On 15th June the old pupils
raised Ksh.250,000 and later the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) donated a
further Ksh.250,000. This saw the construction of two new permanent classrooms
which are now complete.
On 26th
July a further 1,050,000 was given to the school by the CDF to build more
classrooms after they realized that the first donation built only two.
LRV posted a story indicating a looming disaster after
heavy rains pounded the area and ripped off the roof and part of the wall.
Since there was no other place where the pupils would learn, they had to learn
under the precariously dangling roof supported by poles. Even with that state
of affairs the pupils were expected to compete equally with their colleagues who
come from the affluent society.
CDF
officials became proactive after reading the story from the LRV blog which had drawn attention to
many people especially political aspirants from the area. The general election
being round the corner, the political class could not leave anything to
chances. LRV had explicitly written
that many pleas had been forwarded to CDF office to help the school but only
turned a deaf ear on them. The office
has however given much attention has provided full support to the school.
On their part,
the old pupils gathered and raised funds to have the school build permanent
classrooms. From the onset it was evident that the school had produced
prominent personalities working in different sectors. Priests came together
with teachers, doctors, security officers and business merchants. Although the
notice of raising funds was short, all of them spared time out of their busy
schedules to come and aid their former learning hub out of the present woes. Most
of them pitied the state of the school and said that despite their successes
they have never had a forum which brings them together to facilitate the
progress of their former school. They confessed that it was a big shame for
them to enjoy the fruits of their success earned through the school and turn
their backs on it. They said that they would not wish to have their friends and
associates know the state of their former learning institution.
They were
grateful to LRV for drawing to their
attention on the plight of the school. “We are thankful to Laikipia Rural Voices for informing us on this issue. I was going
through the blog and saw the story. I contacted one of my former school mates,
and we began calling one another and the attention grew. We then saw the need
to meet in the school and see what we can do to alleviate the calamity,” said
Mr. Muya, a police officer who attended the school in the 80’s.
The school
was started in 1979 with 265 pupils and 6 teachers and sits in an 8 acre piece
of land. After its inception it has had
its fair share of problems. It took the intervention of the then area MP
Godfrey Gitahi Kariuki (famously known as GG) to have eight semi-permanent
classrooms constructed which have been in use until the recent calamity hit the
school.
Bondeni
stakeholders have had a myriad of challenges in their quest for better
education.The hostile environmental conditions in this part of the country
could not allow parents to have better learning facilities for their children.
They had to go through thick and thin to fend for them and had nothing to spare
for the school infrastructure. Poverty has taken toll of most homesteads. As
fate would have it, wild animals in the neighbouring conservancies has scared
off the pupils and would not turn up early enough for their lessons.
LRV acknowledges the contribution of all and sundry
towards making the lives of pupils in Bondeni Primary School better.
No comments:
Post a Comment