SUSPICION OF GRAT IN THE KERICHO MUSLIM SECONDARY SCHOOL.

SUSPICION OF GRAT IN THE KERICHO MUSLIM SECONDARY SCHOOL.

The Muslim Secondary School in Kericho, Kenya, is already being reported with the same news that has faced many other government or public institutions in the country. To make things worse is the fact that it is a religious institution, where you wouldn’t expect reports of graft and the general embezzlement of the public funds.

A member of the staff in the administration of the mosque that is situated at the Kenya co-operative creameries Depot in Kericho town whispered to us that there has not been a clear circumstances on how the school funds are spend .The member said that the school is sponsored by the Islamic world bank but there have been no clear reports on how the aid funds from the bank are spend ,all that he hears about are reports of the expenditure  of the funds but the school assets are moving or growing in any way, they are just where they were on the grand opening day of the school.

This was whispered to us by the mosques Madrasa teacher who has since then been transferred to Kendu Bay  to help with the training of young children in to Islam hood in Kendu bay.

The Madrasa teacher told the education newspaper to ask the entire Muslim community in the country to take action about this suspicion and have the schools ledgers and other documents of accounts scrutinized for any false dealings. The teacher also wanted the Muslim community to have schools administration monitored closely for any unbecoming behaviors and graft. He complaint bitterly on slowly growth speed of the school despite the Funding from the bank and the expected expertise from the schools administration staff.

He also told us to ask the Muslim community in Kericho town to give the unused parts of land that belongs to the religion to the Faithfull’s of the religion in the town so that they can use it for development purposes instead of the land lying there idly like that.

NDEGE CHAI SACCO

NDEGE CHAI SACCO

Ndege chai Sacco has it origins in the James Finlay Company, the giant tea and flower producing company in Kericho. The Sacco was formed before the company changed its’ name from the African Highlands Produce company to what it is called currently .Today, the Sacco is the biggest in the district.

Membership to the Sacco is open to everyone at a fee of only one hundred shillings and those who are intending to join the Sacco shouldn’t be members of any other Sacco’s elsewhere that carry out the same kinds of business and they should carry with them a copy of their ID cards.

There products include Savings accounts which include personal accounts ,medical accounts, holiday accounts, group accounts ,fixed deposit accounts ,retirement savings account, children’s accounts ,Christmas accounts ,joint accounts, and Akiba kuu accounts .All these savings accounts are not charged ledger fees .

They also give out a variety of loans to their members .They include the normal loans that last for a total of forty eight months with an interest rate of 14% p.a ,additional loan that lasts for the same period with the same interest rates ,emergency loan that lasts for twelve months with an interest rate of 14% P.a ,housing shares and investment loan that lasts up to thirty months with an interest of up to 10% pa ,they give their customers a salary advance loan that lasts for only one month with an interest rate of 8% p.a ,they also give their customers a special  advance that has an interest rate of ten percent per  month, and finally ,they have the jipange loan that last for six months with an interest rate of 3% per month with a maximum amount allowed of two hundred thousand shillings and a minimum amount of ten thousand shillings .

All these loans are formulated on a reducing balance and every loanee meets 1.2% the insurance of cost of his or her loan .The normal and additional loans are paid within thirty days, emergency loans within five days from the day of the receipt of the loan forms provided the applications are filled correctly and all relevant documents attached. The |FOSA advances are processed within fifteen to thirty minutes provided that all requirements are fully met.  

The Sacco’s’ services to its’ members include what they call safe custody  where they charge two hundred shillings per annum ,Bankers checks where they retail the co-operative banks’  bankers’ checks at four hundred and forty shillings and society Bankers’ checks at one hundred shillings .They also have a service that they call the company bill. They pay company bill at a fee of only fifty Kenya shillings.

The Sacco is connected to the co-operative bank network of Sacco link ATMs’. Members can access their cash at any co-op bank ATM country wide and any VISA branded ATM or merchant outlets like supermarkets .They also offer M-Pesa services which apart from sending and receiving money through all M-Pesa outlets, the members can also deposit cash to their FOSA Accounts, make loan repayments and savings using the pay bill option of M-PESA. Using the Sacco’s’ business number  637 637 .It is a simple process of indicating your membership number and the account you are depositing to –whether shares ,loans or FOSA and the account is upgraded automatically .

The Sacco also has the SMS alert services for its’ member which give alerts to each credit to the  FOSA accounts .Guarantors of loanees will also get who default will also get alerts immediately a loanee starts defaulting. Balance enquiries are also possible via SMS by simply texting the word ndegechaisacco to 8004.

The Sacco also has M-Banking services for its’ members .The members are able to make withdrawals from their own FOSA accounts to M-pesa anywhere /anytime by simply dialing *245 harsh and follow very simple steps provided.

On shares and deposits, the Sacco’s Members earn dividends on shares and interest on deposits .This is calculated on a pro-rata formula. The members are also eligible to withdraw loan amounts equal to three times their shares and deposits. The Sacco is committed to provide the best services possible to it’s’ members. They pledge that they will always maintain the back office (BOSA) open from 8.30 am to 5.00pm during the week days and 8.30 to 1.00pm on Saturdays. They also pledge to maintain Front Office (FOSA) open from 8.30 am to 4.00pm on weekdays and from 8.30 am to 1.00pm on Saturdays. They pledge to establish customer care counters at which all enquiries will be attended to; and the necessary documents availed. They also intend to offer excellent services with courtesy, respect, honesty, integrity and impartiality when dealing with membership matters .Customers will be served within fifteen minutes of their visits .All the customers concerns and any information provided will be treated with utmost confidentiality including your personal account details.

On complaint re-dressal, all the Sacco’s customers and general public are advised to lodge genuine complaints and suggestions trough the Sacco’s official contact addresses and phone numbers.

In the event of not being able to receive desired service or feedback from ndege chai office staff, customers can directly lodge their complaints with the chief executive officer, either via written mail, e-mail or phone for prompt resolution either in person or through their elected delegates

WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE FOR CANNING AS A PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS

WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE FOR CANNING AS A PUNISHMENT IN SHOOLS

Canning has been the mode of correction of habits and behaviors since the dawn of civilization. It is the obvious solution for punishment whenever a young one makes a mistake in the home and sometimes, it goes beyond the young ones in the home .Even elders in some communities have used it as punishment for wrong doers in those communities.

So, it was the obvious choice as punishment for pupils in schools. There had to be away of instilling discipline in the rogue pupils or for any other mistakes that might have risen among the school populations. Inflicting pain on the pupils’ asses to cause them to keep off those habits and behaviors or to cause them to be more careful so that they didn’t repeat those mistakes again. The fear of the pain caused by then cane on their asses caused the pupils to hold tightly o to the right ways of behavior and habits and methods of life in the schools or for the grown ups in the villagers ,to live according to the ways of life that were laid down by the elders of the community.

So, because of this, canning of pupils has been a method of life in Kenyan institutions of learning for a long time and up to now, despite its’ ban by the government, many teachers still use it and advocate for it strongly as the best way of correcting and steering the young people in to the right directions as expected of them by the elders in the society.

Despite the ban on the use of canning as a punishment for mistakes and general wrong doing in schools, but there has to be an alternative way of correcting or punishing wrongdoers in schools. It is this alternative that many of us do not have and hence ,we let the pupils go uncorrected and one time find out about the out come of not being corrected in their lives later for themselves .For those who are already beyond primary and secondary ,that is those who can decide for themselves ,it is possible to drop  the method ,but what about the young ones in the ECD centers ,from baby class to class three?

Otherwise, Punishment for wrong doing in schools will be dropped all together. For late coming to school and missing the lessons and unexplained absenteeism, it might work yes but there are certain situations that it really wouldn’t work .There are some pupils who go beyond the normal misbehaviors of a pupil in a class or school that will need for disciplinary action to be taken against them .should they be punished in schools by the disciplinary masters or should we take them to court and judge and sentence them like fully mature men and women in the villages?

The method had its’ good side and bad side also .We talked to ECD teachers at Bondeni ECD center in Mombasa Ndogo estate in the Nygacho living areas of Kericho town, Mrs. Beatrice Koech and Madam Grace About the issue and what she said was enough proof that soon the country is going to drop the method as a disciplinary action against wrong doing in the school compounds.

The teachers said that canning the pupils, especially in ECD, made the pupils to hate the teachers so that the was hostility between the two and a hostile environment in the class and school in general .They said that this environment eventually lead to the lose of concentration in class work leading to the poor performance in class of the pupil or even stopping to come to school totally of the pupils .When you think that you are correcting the pupils, they could be seeing things their own way.

The teachers said that canning caused the pupils to develop health complications .Some pupils have been reported to have hypersensitive bodies so that ordinary flogging of the pupils caused very extensive effects on their health. Some of them have been reported with body swelling, fainting and and peeing in their pants, worse of all are the psychological effects.

The teachers also said that the method can’t work for everyone in class .There were those pupils whom canning can work on them but there are other pupils whom canning can harm instead of bringing about the general benefits that are expected for the good of everyone in the class or the entire school  .It leaves them feeling very inferior before the others in class and completely destroyed psychologically .Instead of making those pupils to follow the school rules more closely, they start seeing life in a different way, they start shying away from their teachers and seeing not as their teachers and friends anymore but as monsters who enjoy canning you or harming you and who will cane you on site. The corrections that you might think you are trying to make or the school rules that you might be trying to make then to follow isn’t their mind seven.

These experts of ECD told us that while we are working hard to drop canning as a form of action against bad habits and behaviors in schools, but it is going to be hard to drop it totally.

The question is ,how do we punish wrongdoers in class or in school or do we stop this method of punishment altogether and let the teachers to concentrate of teaching the geography, mathematics ,English and the rest of them and leave out discipline? What’s the alternative or do we ban punishment in class for good?

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ADULT AND CONTINUED EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IN KERICHO DISTRICT

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ADULT AND CONTINUED EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IN KERICHO DISTRICT

In the earlier days of the introduction of the adult literacy programmes in Kericho district, there were many problems and obstacles that the government had to skip first before they could start assessing the success of the programmes. First and foremost was the task of persuading the illiterate adults to believe and accept that age wasn’t a barrier to learning and their general understanding of what will be taught to them in the classrooms .Many of them had the psychology eep rooted in to them that schooling was for the young ones and that an adult wouldn’t do very well .
Convincing this people to go for the programmes was a very big problem. In adulthood, every body is already too busy in life to find the time to accomplish their every day life’s activities .Winning the families’ daily bread alone takes up to ninety percent of their time, leaving them with only ten percent of the days to share among the other activities in life. Thus, convincing the illiterate adults in to gathering in an adult education classroom was just but another very hard task that needed extra energy and time and perhaps finances in order to achieve it.
That was how it was in the past in kericho, it wasn’t very easy to get them to seat in class for even just one single hour daily, but things are changing with the times. According to the reports that were given to us by the District Adult Education officer, there have been developments which have lead to big psychological changes in the illiterate adult population in the district. According to the officer ,Mr. Gabriel Tum, the adult education department has witnessed among its students population people have are fully committed to learning and they have decided to share their time and follow up strictly with the adult education programmes.
The officer told us that the attending population is very good compared to the total percentage of illiterate adults in the district,it is considered to still be very low only that there is a small rise in the student numbers .The difference is that ,in the past they could gather even twenty or more in a class and then suddenly disappear without reasons or explanations and it wasn’t easy to follow them.
The odd thing about the functioning of the adult and continued education department in the district is that the department doesn’t have even one single adult education center in Kericho town .All their centers are located on the outskirts of the town ,in the villages .
The Department boasts of its few achievements though, First ,the officer told us that they have managed to issue their committed student with proficiency corticated after they sat for a proficiency test .This was done to mark that they were now proficient in their reading ,writing and doing simple calculations .These student are no longer the dump and deaf people they were in the passed but the are people who can fill out forms in the banks ,the post office ,the administration offices and all the others offices where they can be wanted t o some reading and writing and sign this forms very well to .They can do the calculations that go with these activities well too.

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KERICHO HIGHLANDS PRIMARY SCHOOL ANNOUNCE THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THEIR LAVATORIES

KERICHO HIGHLANDS PRIMARY SCHOOL ANNOUNCE THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THEIR LAVATORIES

The Kericho highlands primary school, Is the only school in the town or it could be even the whole district that have income generating facilities in their compounds. First, they have a business building that is rented to business people in the town and it earns the school an income in the form of monthly rent of not lest than six thousand shillings in one month. All these monies go entirely into the school account for the benefit of the entire schools’ population .It is a hundred percent school property. The building is currently rented to a chemist, it sells human medicines.

The school has again announced its’ intentions of expanding its income generating facilities. They have announced their intention of commercializing their toilets .They intend to sell lavatory services to the public who run their activities along Temple Road in the town .The toilets are situated directly opposite the Koineei Plaza ,the big building that neighbors the Walter Reed Clinical research Laboratories center ,all these facilities are situated on the same road. Most of the big businesses on this road are banks and the Kenya institute of Management studies College and offices.

The school had earlier on already advertised the tender application opportunities to interested contractors to carry out the necessary renovation activities on the lavatory .The lavatory is situated on a ten by ten feet area of land .The details of the tender were available at the schools offices at a non-refundable fee of two thousand shillings .The fees were said to be only payable via the schools account with the Kenya Commercial  Bank  No. 1119267048 and the tender application documents had to go with the bank deposit slip of the fees .

The completed forms for the application of the tender were supposed to reach the tender box office by the fifth date of the month of September, later than that wouldn’t be accepted.

It wasn’t clearly stated on how the operation of the lavatory would be carried out after the completion of the renovation works .The schools administration didn’t elaborated whether the tenders were for rental of the lavatory of for the renovation services but judging from the state in which the current lavatory is in, it will need a little renovation works done on it. It wasn’t clearly stated whether the school would employ their own staff to take care of the lavatory  whether they would rent it to some one else .

The schools head teacher told us that the money earned from these facilities goes to the payment of the schools bills, including electricity, water and the welfare of the schools population generally. They intend to use these chance to ease the burden of paying for these services and the extra curriculum activities fees on the parents whose children go to this school .So far we haven’t heard of any other schools in the neighborhood with the same kinds of projects .

The staff and school committee and the entire administration of the school have very high hopes in the nature of their projects that perhaps soon they could expand their project to include housing estates, or wholesale shops or hotels or the rest of the kinds of business, just to create an income for the school.