PointBlank

By Njoroge Kinuthia

Why Kilifi attack should make all voters shudder

The smoke is billowing. And, if we are to believe the sages, where there is smoke there is fire. And indeed there is fire. What is happening at the Coast is disturbing and could herald bad times ahead.

Some people have already decided that elections will not be held at the Coast and they are doing everything to have their way. The burning of an Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission vehicle in Kilifi on Monday should serve as a wake-up call that all is, indeed, not well.

political motormouths

Coming after a similar attack last month in which gangsters snatched up a firearm from a policeman during mock elections, the latest incident proves the determination of a few elements to create arnarchy. This is unacceptable. No one should be allowed to take us back to the mayhem of 2007, not even the political motormouths who are fond of creating divisions every election year.

That is why the Government and all the concerned parties must do everything possible to reassure the electorate of its safety during coming elections.

Where buses are basic needs

Mr Charles Okore has noted that Ogada Secondary School (the late Dr Robert Ouko’s school) has bought a new school bus. Kudos, he says, to the Board of Governors and Parents Teachers Association.

But the decision to acquire the bus has left Okore perplexed. He is accusing the school of lopsided priorities.

"This is the mixed boarding school that has, for God knows how long, had its students fetching water in buckets and basins from a nearby stream.

shallow well

"I am sure about 10 per cent of the amount used to buy the bus could have sunk a borehole or a shallow well to save the hapless students from the pain of fetching water from the stream."

A borehole, Okore points out, could have saved the entire school a lot of headache and, perhaps, helped improve the students’ academic performance.

He doubts the bus will help do this. Just what informed the school’s decision to acquire the bus and what does the head teacher have to say about Okore’s criticism?

Eastleigh’s fall from grace to grass

A former resident of Eastleigh, LCO Membo, decided to visit the estate on Easter Monday and was shocked at what he terms as ‘neglect’ of his once beautiful home.

Membo says he lived in Eastleigh in the 1980s and was proud being a resident. Then, he says, it was clean with well-maintained roads.

Not any more. He reports that half of First Avenue towards what was formerly known as KBS Garage is a pool of dirty, smelly water and can only be crossed on a ‘mkokoteni’, ridden by people with knee-high gumboots.

Nearly the whole of Second Avenue looks like a quarry, excavated then abandoned, punctuated by huge holes and mountains of soil and garbage infested with king-size blue flies and maggots.What used to be the famous street are no more and are homes to all manner of vendors selling anything and everything. Strangely, banks and hotels still operate here.

ever heard

His heart goes out to current residents of Eastleigh. Does any Government or health official visit this estate? Has the MP for the area ever heard of it? Does the City Council care? Membo wants answers.

Deadly alligators prowl Turkana

There are many hungry alligators in Turkana and they are busy eating everything on their path, making poor, innocent children of Turkana to suffer, according to Mr Jimmy Loree.

Alligators, Loree tells PointBlank, are irredeemably corrupt people who he says have found a fertile ground in Turkana.

"Money is channelled to the county but it ends up in the pockets of dangerous alligators. It hurts and pains a lot when you see young children begging for water from travellers," he says and adds: "As much as Turkana is a hardship area graft has made matters worse causing untold suffering."

DON’T YOU FORGET

Is caning still rife in schools, Mr Kilonzo?

On October 5 and 6, PoinBlank carried complaints of alleged use of corporal punishment in schools. The parent of a student at Igunga Girls High School in western Kenya alleged that his daughter was sent home after being "thoroughly whipped" by her teachers.

A parent of a student at New Light Senior Girls in Nairobi complained the next day that her daughter had also been caned and sent home.

PointBlank requested the then Education minister Sam Ongeri to investigate the allegations and tell Kenyans what he was doing to curb the practice. But we now hear that there is a new boss at Jogoo House – Mutula Kilonzo. So were these allegations investigated, Mr Kilonzo?