The Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) has warned that schools might become uninhabitable for learning if the government continues delaying the release of school capitation funds.
The association noted that due to failure by the government to release the funds, schools have been forced to send away support staff and stopped running income-generating projects like livestock rearing.
Already, several schools in Nakuru County have advertised the sale of their livestock, including dairy cattle and pigs, since they do not have funds to pay non-teaching staff.
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This came even as it emerged that a number of security firms manning the learning institutions have started pulling out due to non-payment putting at risk property worth millions of shillings.
The Nakuru Kessha chairman, Fredrick Mbuthia, said the challenges facing the schools were rising by the day adding that since the pandemic was reported and schools closed down, the government had not released any funds to the schools.
“Some schools which have income-generating projects have been forced to sell the assets as they are no longer viable during this period,” he said.
He added that over 10,000 Board of Management teachers and support staff in the county had not been paid.
Mbuthia added that when schools reopen, they will face pending bills amounting to millions of shillings due to the effects of the pandemic.
The chairman called for urgent support from the government, noting that if no action is taken the schools will be uninhabitable when they reopen in January.
“Currently schools are infested in bushes and electricity supply has been disconnected due to non-payment putting at-risk property worth millions of shillings,” he said.
The MD Stega security services in Naivasha Eskimos Kobia, admitted that they had gone for months without payment despite offering security services to the schools.
He said that his company had offered to guard the schools’ property for the first two months but added it was now becoming impossible to continue providing services on credit.
“We understand that schools have not received funding from the government due to the current crisis and we have no option but to pull out,” he said.
Kobia regretted that guards who are usually on the frontline in coming into contact with visitors in various institutions had been forgotten in the fight against the spread of the disease and appealed to the government to intervene before the situation gets out of control.
