Court asks Ministry of Education, Nyeri County to resolve Form One intake row

By MURIMI MWANGI and MOHHAMED DOYO                                    

NYERI: The Nyeri county government and the Ministry of Education have been given more time to resolve a stand-off over the Form One selection process in the county.

Nyeri High Court judge James Wakiaga directed the parties to resolve the deadlock out of court and report back to him on or before March 17.

The county has sued Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi and Principal Secretary Bellio Kipsang for allegedly abetting a flawed selection process to 10 top performing schools in Nyeri.

The dispute involves the admission of 1,831 Form One students to 10 extra-county (formerly provincial) schools, where the county claims the lion’s share of the slots went to “outsiders”.

The affected schools are Nyeri Boys, Chinga Boys, Chinga Girls, Kangumbiri Girls, South Tetu Girls, Karima Boys, Tumutumu Girls, Othaya Boys, Othaya Girls, and Naro Moru Girls. The county is laying claim to 60 per cent of the Form Ones slots in these schools, following a circular released by the ministry last year to guide the selection process.

Monday, the Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ), which on February 7 was enjoined in the case as a friend of the court, disclosed that attempts at earlier talks had hit a snag.

FAILED TALKS

Through lawyer Yuvinalis Angima, the commission said talks failed to kick off following a disagreement over the venue where the parties would meet.

Lawyer Wahome Gikonyo for the county government said that CAJ had “unliterary selected Nairobi as the venue” despite having ample meeting space in Nyeri.

Agreeing to the talks yesterday, Wahome insisted that the discussions must iron out all outstanding issues, including the confusion of having male students admitted to girls’ schools and vice versa.

Justice Wakiaga earlier declined to strike out the petition by Kaimenyi and Kipsang.