Kisumu governor Anyang’ Nyong’o has justified the plan to relocate one of the city’s most prominent schools to make room for the city’s restructuring.
Nyong’o had stated that the city’s Kisumu Boys (previously Kisumu School) and Kisumu Girls High schools should be relocated as part of the city’s zoning under the new plan.
During the ninth Africities Summit media dinner on May 4, 2022 in Nairobi, Nyong’o made the statement in response to inquiries about Kisumu’s proposed urban expansion.
He further gave the impression that a definitive decision had been reached and that the schools would have to be relocated to Kibos, on the outskirts of the city.
“The said relocation of Kisumu Boys and Kisumu Girls High schools has been raised in many professional forums, the latest being in a report on the “Transforming Kisumu City through enhanced urban aesthetics,” he said.
Nyong’o claimed that certain people misunderstood his message and have been carelessly twisting the facts with a lot of negative energy.
This after Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha warned against the relocation of the two schools.
According to Magoha, learners at the twin schools are safe in their current locations.
“So do not scare my students. Every child in this school is as safe as the other one,” he said.
The governor had earlier indicated that a city should be operated as a profit-making entity.
“Considering the value of the place, that land needs to be useful. We need to construct an integrated urban centre rather than schools,” said Nyong’o.
Kisumu Boys, was built during the pre-colonial period and will be relocated to a 105 acres of land parcel in Kibos area.
There has been a plan by the national government to have several schools in the area moved. Some of the structures needed to be moved include Kisumu Girls High School, Manyatta Arabs School, the Kisumu County Referral Hospital, the main bus terminus and the Jua Kali market.
“Each school has a field, a swimming pool and other amenities that have occupied [large parcels of] land. Why don’t we take them to an area where schools share amenities? We don’t need to have a field for each school in a town,” Nyong’o said.
“Five schools can have one field because they don’t use it all the time. Students from school A can use it in the morning and, in the afternoon, school B brings its students,” he added.
However, school Principal Erick Duya stated that he did not want to draw the school into the controversy, stating that they are focused on completing an academic year in six months.