I had told TSC that I was going to die i Garissa but for the four and a half years I was there I enjoyed my stay
When al Shabaab was attacking non-local teachers in the Northeast, many teachers feared for their lives and begged the TSC to let them leave. Many fled.
But some especially dedicated teachers stayed on.
One of them was Lawrence Nyakweba, who had recently been promoted from principal to chief principal in Nairobi. He and his family were overjoyed.
Their celebrations were short lived, however, when he learnt plans had changed and instead he was being deployed to Garissa High School to teach history and business.
He begged the Teachers Service Commission to let him stay in Nairobi.
"I had told TSC that I was going to die there but for the four and a half years I was there I enjoyed my stay,” he told the Star in an interview.
“One of my daughters cried continuously, my family even asked me to appeal the transfer.”
But he was a good soldier and went to Garissa.
“I managed, as a non-local. I had to agree with their culture, work as required but follow the law,” Nyakweba said.
Being a non-local, he made a point of bonding with local leaders, including Garissa Township MP Aden Duale. He thanked Duale for being kind and helpful to him as he settled in Garissa.
He became good friends with his students, mostly of Somali origin.
Nyakweba called his experience in Garissa good and not as dreadful as people thought.
Of course, it wasn't all roses but he declines to discuss inevitable difficulties. He had to be careful about what information he shared with his family, so as not to scare them.
For four and a half years, Nyakweba became part of the family in Garissa town, a place he called his second home.
Because he did a stellar work and was praised by other teachers and the community, he was finally transferred back to Nairobi. And rewarded.
He is now chief principal at Dagoretti High School, replacing now Kibra MP Peter Orero.
“I feel good, I am in a comfort zone, now I have a big office, I have improved it and made it bigger,” he said.
Nyakweba spoke to the Star in the newly furnished office, with fresh paint, extended rooms and neatly fixed curtain rods.
The chief principal’s office is a few metres from the gate and has a boardroom, executive rooms and a secret exit.
“This is a school in town and in my capacity as a chief principal I cannot stay in a small office, yet in Garissa I had a very big office,” he said.
Four months into office, Nyakweba boasts of several achievements.
In one month, the school basketball team will have a new training ground next to the dining hall.
“I am putting up two modern basketball courts under the sponsorship of the Canadian government, it’s the only one in Kenya,” Nyakweba said.
The basketball team is currently in Arusha after proceeding to the East African level in secondary school games.
Nyakweba visited the team earlier this week and his boys had trounced three teams and lost only two matches.
He found a way to bridge the shortage of revision books.
The books from Form 1 to Form 4 were delivered to Dagoretti two weeks ago.
“I wrote a proposal to a South Asian foundation to supply books, they are giving us revision materials worth Sh640, 000,” the new chief principal said.
The school's board of management has employed 28 BOM teachers to deal with the teacher shortage.
The move has proved costly.
“We have to remunerate them from the boarding section, we spend almost Sh600,000 per month from boarding, it’s a big challenge,” he said.
This, he said, was an attempt to deal with the delivery of the CBC curriculum.
Dagoretti High School, for instance, has 10 streams for Form 1s.
“If we have to accommodate them, we will use our hall, we have two halls. One has a basement, ground floor and first floor,” he said.
But in case junior secondary learners decide to become paying boarders, Nyakweba has a temporary solution.
(Edited by V. Graham)