Sub-county education officer threatens not to renew school licence if the matter will not have been resolved by the end of the first term
By Isaac Lenkou
Over 320 pupils from the Kimana School of Leadership Academy are at the centre of an ugly standoff between two factions of the management.
According to Joseph Nkaapa, a co-director of the school, his partner wants to lock him out of the institution they founded together seven years ago.
“We started this institution with Ken Taylor, who is a missionary, who came to start a bible school here in Kimana. We decided to start an academy here at the entrance of the bible college, which would share the same facility with the bible school,” explains Nkaapa.
With time, the school was up and running and the performance also started improving. “Soon, we upgraded the school by jointly purchasing a van, which was to be used by the two institutions,” he added. “All was well until last year, when Taylor suddenly decided to start another school.”
Following the new development, Nkaapa says that he sought a court order after Taylor started demolishing the classrooms. “He contacted our parents, asking them to seek new admissions to the new school,” he adds.
As schools were opening in January, Loitkitok Sub-County Commissioner Laurence Kinyua together with Sub-County Education Officer Laban Siwili and area MCA Peter Parsen visited the school to assess the situation.
Kinyua assured parents that the government would provide security for all the pupils in the first term as they sought an amicable solution to the standoff.
Siwili threatened not to renew the school licence if the matter will not have been resolved by the end of the first term. He also threatened to deregister the school as an examination centre should the two parties fail to come to an agreement.
Taylor declined to be interviewed.
