From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2012

Homa Bay Governor aspirant Cyprian Awiti took an opportunity during the burial of Chief Paul Omol on Saturday to warn electorates that they should not vote for Member of Parliaments who vie for Governor or Senate seats in Luo Nyanza, particularly in Homa Bay.

He said politician like Eng Philip Okundi should not be elected Governor because when he was Rangwe MP there was no development he did, wondering how he could vie for County seat when his constituency defeated him.

Eng. Okundi can be remembered with a court case in 2002/2003 when the High Court stopped an alleged bid to transfer Sh26.5 million to South Africa. The money is said to have been a “donation” by the then Kanu government to Afrispace Kenya Limited to bridge finance a broadcast to schools project in North Eastern province.

Okundi was the chairman of Afrispace Kenya limited, a subsidiary of US based Worldspace Corporation. The money was value added tax refund to Afrispace Kenya limited after it convinced the Government that the refund would be used to bridge finance a Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) broadcast to schools.

Part of the money had been earmarked for the purchase of 5,400 receivers to be supplied to schools in North Eastern. The court heard that a radio education project to assist primary schools in Kenya risked being ground to a halt if the Sh26.5 million was transferred to South Africa.

Those who worked with him at KBC when he was the Boss knew him as a dictator and Moi’s crony. He was one of the politically correct and Moi’s favorable allies in Luo-Nyanza.

Most of theses politicians have been accused of failing to deliver the goods, poor management of the government devolved development funds, vandalizing the CDF money and poor disbursement of the same.

As Luo veteran journalist and investigative reporter, Leo Odero Omolo reports, in some areas the MPs are facing allegations of having formed or established their own construction companies with their spouses as the directors and managers of the firms specifically for the purpose of tapping all the CDF money through biased awarding tender and construction contracts involving CDF money to the phantom companies in which they had the economic interest in.

Other allegations goes that some of the MPs vandalized the CDF money by ensuring that their crones, most of them semi-illiterate and oldest people with no knowledge or experience in the government accounting system to mange the CDF.

Other MPs are suspected to have spent colossal amount of CDF monies in buying trucks and Lorries, which in the names of either their wives or companies which were later contracted for ferrying building materials for the construction of CDF funded projects at a higher prices above the market prices.

As reported, it is only the Karachuonyo MP Eng. James K. Rege, in Luo-Nyanza who had allowed the local CDF disbursing committee to have the intellectuals and professionals to be members.

The CDF committee is headed by Prof Akeyo Omolo of Maseno University as its chairman and all members are people of colorful academic background and experience, making it the only constituency in the region which has had no complaints from the public about the misuse of vandalizing of the CDF funds.

Even though the immigration and Registration of Person Minister Gerald Otieno Kajwang’ will now contest the Homa-Bay County Senate seat, he has never been a high performing MP. People wonder how he is going to manage the county when his small constituency defeated him to develop.

Even in Kisumu County where all the six MPs are expect to be sent home for their lukewarm performance, Prof Peter Anyang Nyongo’ is vying for Senate seat. In one of the schools in his constituency classroom is almost collapsing as shown in the attachment.

Other MPs who have been accused for non performance include Nyakach MP Polyns Ochieng’ Daima, Muhoroni MP Patrick Ayiecho Olueny, Fred Ota [Nyando, Shakeel Ahmed Shabbir [Kisumu Town East, and John Olago Aluoch {Kisumu Town West}. In Siaye Couty Dr Oburu who is vying for Governor Seat is also a non performance.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002

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By Mangoa Mosota

“Do not touch that wall!” barks Norah Angienda, the Standard Three teacher at Rachilo Primary School. “It will crumble.”

She seems genuinely alarmed, even as her pupils sit obediently inside the mud-walled classroom.

Pupils study inside one of the crumbling classrooms. Photos: Titus Munala

Dressed in their tiny blue and white uniforms, they scribble away at their thin notebooks, unaware of the danger their teacher is so conscious about.

Their little feet are grey and red with dust as the floor is covered in layers of earth. Huge cracks have formed in the dry earth, and small avalanches of soil often roll down the walls.

Tumbled Down

Nearby are the ruins of another classroom whose walls tumbled down a month ago.
As the wind blows, howling eerily against the roof, it sweeps up books and items.

There’s no way to stop it as the classroom lacks doors. The children have learnt to stay indoors without touching the walls.

Several other classrooms are in this sorry state, and teachers, pupils as well as parents have lived with the situation for years.

Situated just 30Km outside one of the country’s biggest cities, Kisumu, the school is a study in neglect. It is a parable of the shambolic state of the education system that Kenyan children go through.

Five of the classrooms in use today were condemned more than five years ago. The Government, through officers of Public Health and Ministry of Education, have in the past warned that the shaky structures pose a danger to pupils.

Sitting on several acres in Ogwal Village, it contrasts sharply with Kit Mikayi, the world-famous rock that pulls tourists to the area.

Kit Mikayi is Dholuo for “rock of the first wife”. It stands robustly less than 500 metres away.

This is the heart of Kisumu Rural Constituency, represented in Parliament by Medical Services Minister Prof Anyang Nyong’o.

“The current mud-walled classrooms were constructed soon after the El Nino rains destroyed almost the entire school,” reminisces Dismas Ojwang, the head teacher, standing outside another crumbling classroom.

The rains, which soaked the country in the ‘90s, caused damage to infrastructure worth billions of shillings.

concrete steps

He says a number of Government officials have visited the school, but no concrete steps have been taken to repair it.

National examination results recorded last year lucidly portray the sorry state of the school. Out of the 22 candidates, only six managed to score more than 250 marks out of a possible 500. In fact, the trailing candidate scored less than 100 marks.

With slightly over 200 pupils, the school was started in the early 1980s. Some permanent buildings put in the 90’s are in a state of disrepair.

Due to the poor state of the school, many parents have withdrawn their children from the institution and transferred them to neighbouring ones.

The lower classes paradoxically have an average of six pupils each, a far cry of many rural schools in the country that have an upward of 50 pupils.

stalled

Work on classrooms built by the local Constituency Development Fund stalled for lack of funds.

Parents have contributed money for construction of two pit latrines, shared by the 200 pupils. They have also undertaken some repairs to the mud-walled classrooms.

The school’s Parents Teachers Association chairperson Rose Nyawara says they have made several pleas for assistance by the Government and a number of corporations.
“We fear for the safety of these young ones,” Mrs Nyawara tells The Standard.