By BONIFACE MULU
Thousands of people on Saturday, June 3, 2023 attended the funds drive and family day for the Saint Charles Lwanga Secondary School in Kitui Central District, Kitui County. Among them were the school’s students, parents and teachers.
The Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was the chief guest at the function. Addressing the function, Gachagua thanked the Saint Charles Lwanga Secondary School’s students “for your good discipline and good performance.” The DP talked about the development projects that the Kenya Kwanza government has already done across the country.
“We have employed some 35,000 new teachers in the country. And we are planning to employ another 35,000 teachers in the country next year,” Gachagua said. He regretted that the water scarcity in the Ukambani region (Kitui, Machakos and Makueni Counties) is the biggest problem in the region. “The Kambas are very hardworking people but the problem is the water in the region. They are very active. They are not beggars,” he said.
The Saint Charles Lwanga Secondary School’s sponsor, the Kitui Catholic Diocese’s Bishop, the Right Reverend Joseph Mwongela also addressed the event. “As the sponsor of this school, I am happy to thank the stakeholders and all others who have made this school to continue being the source for human resources for our county and for our country,” Bishop Mwongela said.
The bishop is the sponsor for 267 of the 1,099 public primary schools and 120 of the 183 public secondary schools within the Kitui County. In his speech, the area (Kitui Central Constituency) Member of Parliament, Dr. Benson Makali Mulu backed the Azimio la Umoja Coalition’s anti-government demonstrations in the country. “We demonstrated in 2013 and in 2017 and the demonstrations are continuing in the country.
The demonstrations are in Kenya’s constitution. This is our right. The Kenyan people will continue to demonstrate whenever their rights are violated. It is good to speak the truth,” the MP fumed. Mulu lambasted Kenya’s government’s controversial Finance Bill 2023. “We the Kenyans pay tax.
We know the meaning of paying the tax. But the government’s Finance Bill 2023 is wrong and that is why the Kenyans are rejecting it,” the politician added. “We say no to the Bill. We are never going to accept it. The Kenyans should not be overtaxed,” the Kitui Central Constituency MP said. “No country in the world has ever developed for taxing its people beyond their capacity to pay the tax. None, never,” he said.
The MP complained over the government’s move of increasing the value added tax (VAT) in the country from 8 to sixteen per cent. “Please let us be sober as Kenyans and relook at it (the Finance Bill 2023),” he said. In education, the parliamentarian said: “I have 57 secondary schools in my constituency.” This school, the Kitui High School, Saint Angela’s Girls Secondary School and Mulango Girls High School are some of the oldest schools in this constituency,” Mulu added.
Currently the 58 years old Saint Charles Lwanga Secondary School has a total of 1,276 students, 47 teaching staff members and 20 non-teaching staff members. In her speech, the Tourism, Heritage and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Peninna Malonza highly thanked the Saint Charles Lwanga Secondary School’s management for the exemplary leadership.
And the Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel O. Machogu also addressed the event. “Today the education in the country by the government requires some 700 billion shillings,” the minister said. He said some 8 million students in the country leave university and middle-level colleges each year. “Currently some five million young Kenyans who have left university and middle-level colleges are jobless,” Machogu added.
The occasion was also addressed by the Saint Charles Lwanga Secondary School’s Board of Management Chairman Nicholas Mulila, Kitui East Constituency MP Nimrod M. Mbai and nominated Senator Tabitha Mutinda (United Democratic Alliance).
THE HISTORY OF THE SAINT CHARLES LWANGA SECONDARY SCHOOL-KITUI
The Saint Charles Lwanga Secondary School is a leading education institution in Kitui Central District of Kitui County. The school was started as a Catholic Mission school in 1965. Its foundation stone was laid by the Kenya’s first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta on March 13, 1965.
The school was later converted to a government school under the Kitui Catholic Diocesan sponsorship. The school rests on a parcel of approximately 4.6 hectares.
The school, like all other Kitui Catholic Diocese’s sponsored schools in Kitui County aims at promoting quality education based on Christian values and integrated development of the whole person.
It is on record to have produced many prominent and good citizens in Kenya since it was established in 1965. The school operated on a conservative growth path with the second stream coming into existence in 1978 and a third stream introduced in 2009.
Later the school was registered as a five-streamed school. The school’s enrolment has grown exponentially from a student population of 631 students in 2017 to 1,276 in 2023. The school is a pure boys boarding extra-county school.
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