Community donates 15 acres free land for school buried by landslides

Liter Girls Secondary School in Elgeyo Marakwet. [Kevin Tunoi/Standard]

Liter Girls Secondary, a symbolic peace school along the border of Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot Counties, fell a victim to the fury of Mother Nature on April 18 on.

It was one of the deadliest land and mudslides in the history of the locale. At least 30 people died and 23 bodies have not been found to date.

Liter Girls Secondary, which had 200 students, was buried in debris and sections of it washed away.

The school is estimated to have lost property worth Sh200 million in land, infrastructure, student and staff properties plus a bus.

Luckily no one was in the school when disaster struck. However, the school administrators, teachers and parents are determined to return to normalcy, at least by January, when learning is expected to resume in schools countrywide.

On Thursday the Marakwet East Constituency community, led by Paramount Chief Samuel Rotto, donated 15 acres for the construction of a new Liter Girls Secondary School.

At the same time, the Ministry of Education said it would construct new structures, including classrooms, an administration block and a library.

Mr Rotto said they would not seek compensation for the land, noting that the school was important to the area.

He said the more than 20 families donated the land located nearly two kilometres from where the ruined one stood. “Our greatest joy is to have the school back. The school was a symbol of unity and peace between the Marakwet and Pokot communities. All our children had been enrolled there. As a community, we have decided to give out the land for free,” the elder said.

Jacob Robot, an elder, urged the government to speed up the rebuilding of the school. “We will not allow Liter Girls Secondary School students to transfer to other schools. This is an important institution for us and we will not let it go,” said Mr Robot.

Hellen Kimutai, the school’s principal, said makeshift classrooms and offices would be constructed ahead of the January reopening.

Ms Kimutai said fencing would start immediately as Elgeyo Marakwet County government donated Sh2 million.

“The Ministry of Education has assessed the donated land and has given it a clean bill of health,” the principal said.

She added: “We were not prepared for this disaster and we are pinning our hopes on the ministry. We are kicking off the fencing so that the site is safe.”

Kimutai urged parents with children at the institution to shop afresh, saying not a single item was salvaged.

She said the donated land was on a raised ground, hence much safer.

“We thank the ministry, county government and Kenyans who sympathised and empathised with us when our school was ruined,” she said.

She added that the ground where the school sat before the tragedy had been condemned by the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) and no structures would be built there.

Infrastructure money

The Ministry of Education Director for Secondary Schools Infrastructure Paul Kibet assured the community that they had allocated infrastructure money for the rebuilding.

Mr Kibet said the ministry would work with the Marakwet East National Government Constituency Development Fund to restore normalcy in the school.

“The ministry is mobilising resources. We will do a clear land demarcation as soon as possible,” the director said.

Elgeyo Marakwet County Commissioner Ahmed Omar said the donated land had been approved by Nema and was therefore not susceptible to flooding and landslides.

Omar said the county administration had requested the Education ministry to seek the services of the National Youth Service to speed up the reconstruction.

“We have asked Kenya Power to connect electricity to the school as soon as construction is completed. We assure parents that construction is starting soon,” he said.