Lamu West NG-CDF has secured the title deed for Kipungani Primary School in Lamu County, which has been on private land since 1974.
Before then, the school candidates were forced to trek for at least 18 kilometres to sit for their Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (KCPE) exams in Matondoni Primary School, the nearest Exam Centre, where most pupils in the area live.
Speaking to KNA, the County Director of Education, Joshua Kaaga, lauded the move by the Lamu West NG-CDF, to secure the school’s title deed that had been in private hands for more than 40 years.
“The move is commendable because it secures the school for area residents to enroll their children and have them ably sit for the KCPE exams, without the inconvenience of having to register in a school that is more than 10 kilometres away from where most of them live,” Kaaga stated.
He further noted that by securing the title deed, the school could now become a Centre of excellence, without having the tag of a school built on somebody’s land.
The same sentiments were echoed by Kipungani village elder, Athman Badi, who stated that the school management and the former owners of the land on which it was built had been in a long contention over the price the government had to pay to secure the facility.
“The land was donated by one Omar Adalla, for construction of a school to aid local children get education and when he died in the 1970s, his family reneged on the deal and demanded for full payment of the piece of the land where the school had been built,” Badi stated.
However, he lauded the National Government through the Lamu West NG-CDF for finally securing the title deed that would now enable the school embark on more infrastructural development, including construction of classrooms.
“For a long time parents in Kipungani area had to take their children to Matondoni Primary School, which is at least 15 kilometres away,” the elder stated.
Lamu West Member of Parliament (MP), Stanley Muthama, on his part said by securing the school, they will now undertake to build more classrooms and rehabilitate the existing ones.
“We will equally fence the school to prevent land grabbers from eying the land that the National Government has laboured to secure for the children of Kipungani to achieve education,” he said.
Muthama further noted that the Lamu West NG-CDF has spent about Sh30 million on school projects in the current financial year in a bid to improve education standards in the expansive constituency.
“We have at least seven (7) wards where we are working to improve learning facilities, including in some remote areas such as Kipungani, Maleli and Manda to ensure that all our children have equal access to education,” he said.
By Amenya Ochieng
