Lamu parents fear for children studying in Mud classes due to flood

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A Flooded village in Chaluma Lamu.More than 3000 residents of Kipini in Tana river have been forced to spend the Ramadhan hungry after their village was marooned by floods PHOTO: NATASHA NEMA

Lamu, KENYA: Schools with mud classrooms continue to be the worst affected with the ongoing floods in Lamu county.

Parents of Kakathe,Maleli,Moa,Boramoyo,Maisha Masha,Rehema,Amkeni,Pangani and Jericho primary schools in Witu and Mpeketoni divisions are now calling on the government to put up permanent classrooms and amenities that can withstand floods and heavy rains.

Majority of classrooms in the schools are made of mud which makes meaning they easily collapse due to the floods and heavy rains pounding the region.

Parents are now concerned that current heavy rains will lead to the collapse of most if not all such classrooms and as such render learning difficult.

Speaking on Friday, parents and locals have called on the government and well-wishers to intervene in order to enable their children to carry on with learning in a conducive environment.

They said permanent structures will enable their children to attend school even during the heaviest rainy periods unlike now when classrooms in most affected places have either collapsed or are totally submerged making learning impossible.

“Pupils of these schools normally have it rough each time it rains.Sometimes we also worry about the classrooms collapsing on the kids since they are made of mud.Timely interventions will enable our kids to carry on with learning comfortably.Schools here need permanent structures, not these mud structures,” said John Chengo, a parent.

The parents have also accused area MP Stanley Muthama for failing to provide the required support to uplift infrastructure in schools located in rural areas.

“You take a look at these schools and even wonder whether they are in Kenya in the first place.We no longer know if CDF still exists since we have never seen anything.Such monies need to be put into improving such schools.We shouldn’t have mud schools anywhere in Kenya in this age and era.Not with the much hype on devolution,” said William Kariuki, a parent.

Learning has also been greatly affected as schools remain submerged in floods while classrooms and other school amenities collapse due to the floods.

School children from terror-prone Basuba ward in Lamu East are unable to return to their learning centre at Arid Zone primary school in Mokowe and Kiunga after the April holidays due to floods that continue that continue to mar their villages.

The children all of whom are from the Boni minority community had to be transferred to the safer learning zones following increased insecurity caused by al Shabaab militants which resulted to the closure of all primary schools in Basuba since 2014.

The over 500 pupils now have to wait for interventions of until the floods come to end before they can finally safely venture back to their learning centers.

The learning centers in Mokowe and Kiunga had to be established four years ago to enable students from terror-prone areas carry on with learning.

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