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The People’s Champion May 2, 2014

May 2nd, 2014 2 min read

Woe unto the children! County Hall has made the worst mistake in allocating only Sh607 million to education when the infrastructure in most schools is falling apart and pupils are congested beyond imagination in the classrooms, says Brenda Mbule.

A recent report by a taskforce commissioned to look into the declining performance of city schools in national exams, pointed out congestion, high pupil-teacher ratio among many such factors  as contributing to the problem.

Education is one very important aspect of any society and when that is lacking, it clearly says a society has chosen backwardness, she adds.

When other poverty-ridden counties outperform Nairobi in KCPE and KSCE, it is shameful and Mbule says, whoever is in-charge should have remembered to  put education first.

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Shoddy road works. Some repair work being done on county roads leaves too much to be desired, says Nancy Muchung’u.

And the workers seem not to understand that they can cause many accidental deaths by digging up the road and leaving gaping holes at a steep slope for weeks on end. This has been done on Kangundo Road at Njiru and it puts motorists at a great risk, adds Muchung’u.

County Hall road workers arrived one day and dug up the patches that had small potholes, then disappeared.

Vehicles include big buses packed with passengers zigzag around the dug-up patches, confusing oncoming motorists. A small mistake would send a driver who veers off the road rolling into the river, not forgetting the really rocky slope they would be lucky to survive, she says.

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Efficiency. Nairobi Water Company did well to open an office in the City centre at Cameo on Kenyatta Avenue, says Jack Oola. It was about time. Operations in its other outlets was anything but efficient with huge queues at any hour of the day.

The city centre office has only been operational for a few days so it is too early to pass a verdict. But if I may put in a suggestion, the office should not be used for paying monthly water bills.

Such payments should be done electronically, as it is happening with M-Pesa, Lipa Karo that is saving parents a lot of time. The office, should only be used to facilitate payments for new connections and dealing with problems that arise unexpectedly. Let us move with the times and save time and money, he advises.

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Traffic woes. Are we ever going anywhere with the many traffic rules that barely see the light of day? asks Judy Mwendia.

We had Michuki, whose rules in 2003 that really promised to change the matatu industry, but that was the furthest we ever went and any attempts to introduce serious rules are met with court petitions, questioning their legality and such other hurdles that takes us back to where we started.

Commuters also seem to have a death wish as they let matatu crews cramp them together like sacks of potatoes. Rules or no rules, no self-respecting person should pay for a service that is offered in such a demeaning way.

But Mwendia’s unanswered query remains: Why the Transport ministry cannot ensure smooth running and an end to matatu sector chaos for residents to feel save?

 

Write to The People’s Champion at nnchampion@ke.nationmedia.com