THE GOVERNMENT’S OVERREACTION TO MUKUMU GIRLS EPIDEMIC SMACKS OF A MASSIVE COVER-UP OPERATION

Early this week, KUPPET dispatched a team of medical experts to Mukumu Girls High School in Kakamega County where four students and a teacher have died while more than 600 students, teachers and workers were hospitalised with a yet-unidentified ailment.

The expert team, which was reinforced by our partners from the doctors’ union, held consultations with the school administration, teachers, other staff and local KUPPET officials. They also reviewed investigative reports by the Public Health Department and the County Education Board.

The official report form the Ministry of Health indicates that the outbreak at Mukumu Girls was caused by Enterotoxigenic E. coli and Samonella typhi, an indication that water ingested by the students at the school were contaminated with these micro-organisms.

Based on the team’s findings, the union has made the following four determinations on the disease outbreak and government response to date:

1. The cause of this disease and the deaths has not been conclusively established. There are claims that the school compromised on the public health report on the suitability of the water in the school. Scientific tests are needed on the safety of the school’s water systems. We await the post-mortem results and more expert investigations for greater insights into the disease.
2. The outbreak of the disease characterised by fever, cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea seems to go beyond Mukumu Girls. Other schools from Kakamega, Bungoma, and Vihiga Counties have reported similar symptoms in students, leading to the closure of the institutions.
3. Rather than systematically addressing an emerging epidemic, the government is engaged in a massive operation to cover up evident gaps in school health, contrary to policy. The forcible retirement of the school principal, Madam Fridah Ndolo, and dissolution of the Board of Management smack of a cover-up effort. Sending sick students home before the disease is properly understood could potentially transmit an epidemic to communities.
4. Instead of kneejerk reactions, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Hon Ezekiel Machogu, should convene a multi-agency team to review compliance with the Kenya School Health Policy 2018, which provides guidelines on ensuring healthy environments in learning institutions.

Among the main goals of the Kenya School Health Policy is managing access to water, sanitation and hygiene. The Policy recognises the right of all learners to safe and clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. This is to ensure disease prevention and control in schools.

Circumstantial evidence total non-compliance with this Policy at Mukumu Girls High School. Our team observed that the water that is being used in the school is stored in an underground tank, close to which runs a sewer line. The possibility of sewer contaminating water in the tank due to sewer seepage is very high.

Secondly, with 2,028 students, Mukumu Girls High School is clearly overpopulated. Learning resources and other facilities are strained. This is attributable to the government policy of 100% transition from primary school to secondary school. Uncontrolled sharing of resources due to the scarcity of the same plays a critical role in disease transmission in the event of an outbreak.

In such an environment, where resources are strained, putting in place systems to prevent transmission of communicable diseases, morbidity and mortality can be a very big challenge for the school management.

Recognising this, the Kenya School Health Policy Implementation document charges the Ministry of Health with the responsibility to “Provide technical advice on the required health standards including infrastructure, water and sanitation facilities in schools.”

The same ministry cannot come back and tell us that water was contaminated. The Directorate of Public Health must account for the negligence by its officers in such a scenario. The Directorate must answer the question of whether it has systems in place (including resources and manpower) to conduct routine public health checks in our schools.

Since this disease outbreak has been reported at Buture Boys High in Kakamega County and Khasoko Boys Secondary School in Bungoma, there clearly is a systemic lapse in the public health surveillance as opposed to failure by the school administration in adhering to public health guidelines.

Punishing Madam Ndolo only serves to undermine efforts to find lasting solutions to the problem over which she had no control. Regrettably, her forcible retirement fits in a pattern where our hard-working principals are used as sacrificial lambs to assuage public anger at the whiff of any malfunction in the school system regardless of the enormity of the situation.

KUPPET calls upon the Ministries of Education and Health to account for their responsibilities under the Kenya School Health Policy 2018. In case the Minister is unaware, the MOE’s Quality Assurance Directorate is in a sorry state, crippled by contradictory policies that have rendered the established standards useless.

A key example is the government’s policy on 100 percent transition from primary to secondary schools. The increased numbers have upended most existing guidelines on school establishment and health and safety policies. Before using the sledgehammer on the victims of the Ministry’s dysfunction, Hon Machogu must clean his office first and ensure that his Quality Assurance officers understand and are accountable for their work.

In the same vein, we urge the Teachers Service Commission to defend the rights of its employees from political fiat.

Amid the huge misfortune that has befallen the Mukumu Girls community, we urge politicians to exercise restraint and avoid inflaming the people’s passions. We take great exception to comments by the Senator for Kakamega, Hon Bonny Khalwale, who has repeatedly misdirected his ire from the county government to an innocent principal.

For the avoidance of doubt, water services are a devolved function. For that matter, the construction and maintenance of sewer systems in Mukumu Girls High School is a responsibility of the Kakamega County Government. Madam Ndolo had no power whatsoever over sewer systems developed by the county government.

To achieve disease prevention and control in schools, routine school inspection should be allocated more resources. Laboratory investigation of keys public health concerns should be part of routine school inspection. Capacity building for both the school community and the public health professionals need to be treated as a priority area to enhance disease surveillance and reporting.

The 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) students joining university from Nyambara Boys High School have been urged to be exemplary role models to fellow students because of their holistic molding.

Nyamira County Woman Representative, Jerusha Momanyi while presiding over the price and thanks giving ceremony at the school advised the students to maintain high levels of discipline even as they prepare to join various universities locally in the country and beyond and prove to the world that they can be depended upon at all times.

“We commend our Education Cabinet Secretary, Ezekiel Machogu for proving to parliamentarians that the sterling 2022 KCSE results by schools from Gusii region were genuine and claims that there was massive examination cheating in our region are baseless, false and flimsy allegations,” she said.

“We are very proud of our children and congratulate them for proving to the world that they can also top in this country. I advise you to continue excelling in your tertiary education because we are assured of bright, focused and goal oriented citizens who will contribute to the development of our country once they start joining the job market,” Jerusha said.

She gave a Sh5 million cheque from the Education Cabinet Secretary to the school to help in boosting its infrastructure project of a mega hall which will accommodate over 4000 students because the current one is overstretched and can no longer be able to accommodate the school’s population which has an enrolment of over 3500 students.

The Regional Director of Education (RDE), Nelson Sifuna who read the CS’s speech congratulated the 2022 KCSE class and the school management for their tireless efforts in ensuring that they emerge top in the country and challenged them to put the same efforts in ensuring that they continue remaining at the top in subsequent examinations.

Kitutu Masaba Member of Parliament, Ombane Gisairo where the school is situated promised to continue supporting vulnerable students from the constituency by awarding them bursaries to enable them complete university education without interruption.

Nyambaria High school Chief Principal, Charles Onyari confirmed that the school has been recording a steady growth in performance and their topping the country did not come as a surprise.

“The steady growth and admirable performance of our school is attributed to a cooperative and supportive community, a well-focused and academically resourceful Board of Management, hardworking and committed teaching and non-teaching staff, concerned parents and disciplined student body. Further the school enjoys unprecedented political good will because our students benefit from various bursaries initiated by our political leadership,” Principal Onyari enumerated.

He appealed for continued support from all stakeholders and people of good goodwill to enable them maintain their academic performance in subsequent academic examinations and extracurricular activities.

Nyambaria High School topped the country in the 2022 KCSE examination by recording a mean score of 10.89 with all the 488 candidates qualifying to join university later this year, the school therefore organised for a thanks and prize giving ceremony for the students where they were gifted awards ranging from laptops, smart phones, suitcases and cash.

The government has launched the New Higher Education Funding(NHEF) model for both scholarships and loans for students placed by Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).

The NHEF model takes effect with the admission of the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates into universities and colleges for the 2023-24 financial year.

The new funding framework seeks to offer students whose households are at the bottom of the pyramid equal opportunity in accessing university education and technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

Funding will be based on four criteria; choice of the programme, household income band, affirmative performance and government priority areas.

A Means Testing Instrument (MTI) will be applied to scientifically determine the need levels of students.

The instrument has eight variables, which have been used over the years and have been strengthened and linked to other databases to boost reliability.

The eight variables include parents’ background, gender, course type, marginalisation, disability as well as family size and composition.

By combining these variables, it is envisaged that the State will be able to determine the needs of the various households and fund them appropriately.

Under the new model, funding will be student-centred and be apportioned according to their levels of need classified into four; vulnerable, extremely needy, needy and less needy.

Higher Education Funding Model

The Model: Variable Scholarship and Loan Funding Based on Means Testing

1. For Universities education, funding will be based on the actual cost of the program with the following sources of funding:
   • Government Scholarship – an average of 61%;
   • Government Loan – an average of 5%;
   • Household contribution – an average of 5%.
2. Student-centred funding for TVET education in the new model:
   • Funding is student-centred;
   • Funding is based on actual cost of the program;
   • Government Scholarship – an average of 58%;
   • Government Loan – an average of 32%;
   • Household contribution – an average of 10%.
3. Distribution of scholarships and loans to distinct categories of TVET students:
   • Vulnerable: Scholarship 80%; Loan 20%; Household
   • Extremely Needy: Scholarship 70%; Loan 30%; Household
   • Needy: Scholarship 50%; Loan 30%; Household 20%.
   • Less Needy: Scholarship 32%; Loan 48%; Household 20%.
4. Criteria for identification of students to be funded
   • Academic performance on KCSE
   • Affirmative action:
     • Marginalized as defined by Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA);
     • Persons living with
   • Household income bands classified according to the monthly household incomes outlined below;
     • Vulnerable – 0;
     • Extremely Needy – 23,671 per month and below;
     • Needy – 23,672 to Ksh.70,000;
     • Less Needy – 70,001 to Ksh. 200,000.
   • National priority areas for Human Capital Development in the country. The following are some of the current Government national priority areas: Agriculture; Animal Health; Climate Change; Medicine; Environment; Technology; Engineering; Applied Sciences; Nutrition and Dietetics; Blue Economy,
5. Determining Students’ level of need

The Means Testing Instrument (MTI) to scientifically determine students’ level of need assigns varied weights and scores students based on the following eight parameters:

• Parent’s background – orphan, single parents, both parents,
• Gender – male or
• Course type – STEM, Arts, national priority area etc
• Previous school type – private or
• Expenditure on education – siblings in high school/tertiary
• Family size and composition – number of children; polygamous/monogamous; age of
• Marginalisation – students/institutions in marginalized counties
• Disability – any form of

7. Placement and Funding
   • Placement by Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) shall not be linked to funding of students. The Universities Act of 2012 Section 56 part 1 (a) to be emended
   • Admission of government-sponsored students harmonized to start in August/ September for uniformity and alignment to the Government Financial
8. Access to funding by students
   • Actual programme cost shall be disclosed to the student during the application process on the KUCCPS portal;
   • Students will be eligible to apply for financial assistance including Government Scholarships, loans and bursaries upon receiving an admission letter from the respective University/ TVET;
   • All other funding and sponsorships provided by the National Government Constituency Development Fund, County Government and other sponsors to be centrally coordinated to avoid multiple funding of the same
9. Universities to have diversified funding streams
   • Student financing: Scholarships/loans/bursaries;
   • Research funding;
   • Capital Infrastructure Grants;
   • Fee for services such as Consultancy
10. Budget Policy Statement
    • Universities’ vote book budget line to be amended from the current 43 to one line referred to as – University Students Scholarships;
    • University Students Scholarships to be apportioned and disbursed by the Universities Fund as stipulated in the Universities Act,
11. Review of the Model
    • The University funding policy and framework to be reviewed to determine fees for different categories of students: government sponsored, privately sponsored, and, foreign students;
    • Universities will be required to declare and publicise the actual cost of their programmes;
    • No public University shall levy additional charges or raise fees without the approval of the Universities Fund Board;
    • Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) to provide input for reviewing the funding model every year.

Basic Education Principal Secretary (PS) Dr. Belio Kipsang has stated that integrity issues in this year’s exams has been drastically reduced with early exposure which was the biggest challenge having been fully contained.

Dr. Kipsang said the new arrangement put in place where the centre managers pick exams from the containers twice in a day instead of just once as was the case earlier has eliminated early exposure to exams since there is no time for the papers to be opened before students sit for the examination.

“The managers pick the second paper of the day from the containers as they drop the students’ answer scripts of the first paper and in doing this, there is no time to tamper with this second paper of the day as before,” the PS said.

Dr. Kipsang also noted that his ministry has been working together with the security and the Information and Communications (ICT) departments in ensuring malpractices in this year’s exams were at a bare minimum.

To this end, he revealed that the ICT officials have managed to infiltrate and block all online sites that have previously been used to provide early exposure to exams and other malpractices.

“Out of 11,000 centre managers, only seven have been found to be involved in examination malpractices and have accordingly been suspended and investigations are ongoing for the law to take its’ course,” He said.

Some of the suspended centre managers or principals are from High Schools including Nyambaria High School in Nyamira County, Gekomoni Secondary School,  Gekonge High School and Sironga Girls High School, all in Upper Nyanza region.

The suspended school heads were alleged to have aided in incidents of exam malpractice in their schools using mobile-phones.

The PS was speaking at Naivasha Girls’ Secondary School in Naivasha on Friday when inspecting the handling of the ongoing exams by centre managers and other stakeholders in the examination process.

Kipsang announced that they have already started marking the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination in order to release the exam results in good time to allow parents ample time to prepare to take them to Secondary School in January.

He also observed that measures have been put in place to ensure students in the flood-hit areas of the country sit for  exams with several helicopters having been put on standby to assist in delivering exams to exam centres.

Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. David Njeng’ere who had accompanied the PS said since 2016, the biggest challenge they have had with exams is early exposure, especially of the second paper of the day, which has completely been eliminated this year with the new arrangement to have centre mangers to pick exams twice a day.

This year 903,260 candidates are sitting for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations in the country.  This is an increase from 884,122 candidates who sat for the 2022 KCSE exams.

The exam is being undertaken across 11,000 centres under the supervision of the centre managers. KCSE exams which started on Monday, November 6 are expected to end on November 24.

According to data from the Ministry of Education, the marking of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KIPSEA) has commenced with candidates set to receive their exam results before the Christmas holiday.

There were a total of 1,415,315 KCPE and 1,282,574 KIPSEA candidates who sat for the 2023 exams that began on October 30 and were completed on November 1, 2023.

60 teenage mothers in Nandi County have been offered scholarship to pursue courses of their choice at various Technical and Vocational Training Institutes.

According to Nandi County Women Representative Mrs Cynthia Muge, she targeted mothers aged between 30-45 years who had dropped out of primary and secondary schools because of early marriage and teen pregnancy.

Speaking at her office in Kapsabet town, Cynthia stated that most of the mothers had sought her support to facilitate their education to develop skills that would empower them economically.

“We want to empower our adult mothers that’s why we have made arrangements with technical institutions such as Kaiboi, Aldai, Tinderet, Sigoria, Lesso among others to admit them. Sh 12.2 million has been allocated towards empowering the women to train in different areas of interests,” she said.

Among the courses the adult students will be taking include hotel and catering, food and beverage, plumbing, tailoring, painting among others.

The women representative said her office is prioritizing women, the youth and persons living with disabilities to benefit from the National Government Affirmative Fund education kitty.

Some 207 students have been given scholarships worth Ksh 1.9 million from the kitty.

Fifty women’s group, 10 youth groups and three groups of People Living with Disabilities have also received Ksh 6.5 million to initiate income generating projects that will guarantee value addition to improve their social and economic status.

Women presented thanked Cynthia for the kind gesture saying educating a girl child is like educating a community.

They noted that Nandi County has some of the highest cases of female school drop outs adding that when such women are skilled, they would be able to earn a decent living and take care of their families.

Onjiko Boys and Agoro Sare shines in the 2023 Regional Drama festivals that has been concluded today in St.marys school Yala.Onjiko boys scoops positions 1 in solo verse and spoken word As agoro sare scoops position 1 in choral verse and modern dance.

Nyanza Drama Results

Solo Verse

1.Onjiko
2.Rae
3.Yala
4.Oriwo
5.Agoro Sare
6.Lwak Girls
7.Nyambaria
8.Mochenwa
9.Nyamonaria
10.Kisumu Girls
11.Oyugi Ogango Girls
12.Rapogi

Choral Verse

1.Agoro Sare
2.Kisumu Day
3.Bishop Okoth Ojola

Play

1.Yala
2.Ringa
3.Maseno
4.Kereri
5.Rang’ala
6.Ojola
7.Ukwala
8.Agoro Sare
9.Kanga
10.Oyugi Ogango
11.Kojwach
12.Gesiaga
13.KG
14.Sironga
15.Nyangusu
16.Cardinal

Comedy

1.St. Cornelius
2.Lwak Girls
3.St. Cornelius
4.Others

CCD

1.Ngiya
2.St.Teresa’s Girls
3.Kisumu Girls
4.Nyamira Girls
5.Kanyamedha
6.Nyakach
7.Moi Sindo
8.Oyugi Ogango
9.Nyagondo
10.Ogande
11.Hema
12.Wire
13.Kadika
14.Geke
15. Nyangajo

Narrative

1.Ringa
2.Yala
3.Gesiaga

Modern Dance

1.Agoro Sare
2.Kisumu Girls
3.Rang’ala Boys
4.Nyamonye
5.Rapogi
6.Kisumu Boys
7.Kodero Obara
8.Maranda
9.Mochenwa
10.Onjiko
11.Riabe
12.Kisii
13.Nyabigena
14.Habay
15.Ogande
16.Nyangusu
17.St.Kizito
18.Mabera

Spoken Word

1.Onjiko Boys
2.Lwak Girls
3.Yala
4.Ukwala
5.Xaverian
6.Rapogi
7.Koru
8.Lala
9.Mochenwa
10.Oyugi Ogango
11.Oriwo
12.menyenya
13.Siaya Central
16.Mwongori
17.Riabe
18.Kakiimba