County to replace Sh15k colonial block with Sh36m building

A seventy-year-old colonial days administration block at the top KCSE exam performing Matinyani Secondary School in Kitui, put up in the 1950s, is set up for demolition.

The building that was set up at a cost of Sh15,000 will be replaced by a Sh36 million magnificent two-storey structure courtesy of the County government of Kitui.

Kitui chief officer for roads and public works Eng Benjamin Chamia, on Thursday said the old administration block gave the school a bad image and has to be replaced with a state-of-the -art building.

A plaque on the wall of the old colonial days administration block reads; “Matinyani DEB School built by people of Matinyani under Chief Mwendwa Kitavi at $750 Opened in 1950.” At the time, $750 was estimated to be the equivalent of Sh15,000.

Chamia who presided over the handing over of the site for the new project to the contractor, said the old one has to be demolished to give way for a modern facility that befits the status of the academic giant.

He said Kitui Governor Julius Malombe was impressed with the performance of Matinyani Secondary School that he decided to reward the impressive performance with and a modern administration block.

In the 2022 KCSE examination results, not only did the school top in Kitui county but was also the best performing one in Eastern region. It was position 24 nationally.

Chamia said although the construction of secondary schools was not under the purview county government, the school’s impressive performance moved Malombe to consider building a modern administration block in appreciation.  

“We (county government) believe that we should have an input in supporting such institutions; of course not this school alone. This is just the beginning. You know this lies under the National government but were are stakeholders.

“Because we know Matinyani Secondary School takes over 90 per cent of learners from local primary schools, we want our learners to transit to good secondary schools. That is why we have decided to support Matinyani in a small way because we have seen its performance,” he added.

The chief officer said that from last year’s Matinyani KCSE exam performance, it was overt that once a student is admitted to the school she was guaranteed of a straight entry to university.

He said having good infrastructure in schools was a sure way of enabling learners to study up to university. He pledged that the County government will continue contributing albeit in a small way in improving learning facilities.

Chamia said the County government had already set aside Sh12 million initial funding to kick start the works for the construction of the new admiration block at the school.

He said the rest of the funds would come from the National government and parents with children at the school.

After officially handing over the site to the contractor, Chamia vowed that his officers would ensure quality workmanship that would adhere to the provided bill of quantity to the letter.

He said shoddy work not only for that particular project but for any other, would not be condoned as the county had top notch engineers who with the backing of a material lab that was recently set up, would ensure quality work.