Before proflific academician and former KNUT unionist Justus Mutai Musyoka was elected by more than 20,000 teachers drawn from 3 constituencies to represent them at the KNUT behemoth — he had accomplished several major feats in local academic circles.
DISCPLINE MASTER: Mr. Justus Mutai Musyoka, current Director of State Department for Basic Education was nicknamed ‘Soldier’ by rowdy students at Mwingi Boys during his reign /PHOTO PATRICK KIMANZI/COUNTY DIARY
The current Director of State Department for Basic Education is the man credited for churning out a sustained reform agenda that turned around the runway indiscpline that plagued Mwingi Boys school in 1997 through 1999.
“The juvenile deliquency at Mwingi Boys, coupled with poor performance during the national examinations reached it’s lowest point during my tenure at Ukasi Boys.
Order out of chaos
People said that it was my stellar performance at Ukasi attracted the attention of TSC technocrats. They then head hunted me and influenced my deployment to the rowdy Mwingi Boys ostensibly to bring order out of chaos.
I didn’t disappoint” says the former St Joseph’s Mwingi school captainMr. Justus Mutai Musyoka, as the head of curriculum at Mwingi Boys would then spearhead a team of four strict academicians who worked in tandem with him to craft a sustainable reform agenda that would see the school regain it’s discpline in less than one year.
Parents were overjoyed. Kyetho received banquets of praise both from authorities and the Mwingi academic fraternity.
However, Kyetho’s percieved high handedness to reform the deliquents at the institution attracted barbs from the rowdy “Kaharambee,” students, most of them who used drugs and sneaked out to watch movies in town.
The boys would nickname him ‘ soldier,’ due to his no nonsense approach to indiscipline, not to mention millitary- like demenour that sent shivers down their spine.Today, Mwingi Boys High School is today one of the most competitive schools in Kitui County.
It ranks amongst the most discplines schools in the County.”It was not a walk in the park. It was one of my most challenging feat. It tested my mettle and personal attributes to the core” offers the Founder and Trustee of Senior Chief Musyoka Muthisya Foundation.
During his noble career Justus Musyoka, who has steadly risen through the ranks an academic technocrat, has rubbed shoulders with top KNUT mandarins, including nominated MP and KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion and Baringo Governor Kiptis Stanley.
It must be mentioned that Justus Mutai Musyoka, popularity known as “Kyetho” also turned around the poor performance of schools when he served as the District Education Officer for Meru Central between 2011 to 2017.
His transfer to Meru is said to have been influenced by local Meru leaders, partly due to the poor and nondescript performance of schools in the area.
“Everything he touches in academic circles turns into gold” says Samson Mulinge, a former Kenya Commercial Bank analyst and a neighbour in Kyuso Sub-County.
Today, the decorated academic reformer is also a budding community philanthropist in his own right as his foundation community activities gather steam in Mwingi North, buoyed by the massive support it enjoys from local leaders, women and the youth.
“The Senior Chief Musyoka Muthisya Foundation is a vehicle that will steadly improve local livelihoods while advocating for change of guard in local leadership through sustained capacity building and empowerment of women and the youth” said Kyetho during this interview with COUNTY DIARY.
Kyetho was born in Kyuso to the late Senior Chief Musyoka Muthisya of Mivukoni (later Kyuso) location, about forty years ago.He is married with 3 children.
His leadership values must have been inherited from the family ancestral gene gnomeHis father, the famous Senior Chief Musyoka Muthisya is credited for having transformed education standards in the area, his leadership skills not withstanding.
“Transformational leadership is what we need in Mwingi North. Transformation coupled with reform a agenda remains my clarion call in leadership.
It is the roadmap to the total emanicipation of the region — politically, socially and economically” said Kyetho speaking to COUNTY DIARY in Mwingi yesterday afternoon.Email the Editorpkimanzi@gmail.comEnds
