How Kiambaa youths got back Playground after 30 yrs

The youth of Kiambaa village had for many years been banned from setting foot at the Kiambaa football pitch situated next to Senior Chief Koinange high school. This had forced the youths, especially the football lovers to find alternative grounds where they would practice and play football matches resulting in the death of the game in the village. Initially, in the early 1970s, before the Senior Chief’s school management claimed ownership of the playground, the field used to host legend football teams from
Kiambaa village  among them the famous Kiambaa Sharpshooters.

According to the older community members who used to frequent the grounds, the school had started claiming that, players were interfering with the school some of whom were alleged to be selling drugs to students and others luring the girls from the school. The administrators decided that the only option was to

chase away the community members from anywhere near the school including the playground which they claimed was part of the school compound. For over 30yrs, many efforts by the community to get back their playground including seeking help from local leaders, storming the grounds by force or staging demonstrations against the school did not bear any fruits as the school used armed security officers to keep guard.

How the playground reverted back to community use.

During the 2013 elections, I was elected to represent Karuri Ward which includes Kiambaa village. As a resident of Kiambaa, I knew very well all the aspirations of the people in the area and having a polytechnic was among the top priority of my agendas for this community. I therefore used my position as a member of County Assembly to lobby the County Government for the establishment of a polytechnic in Kiambaa village since I knew we already have classrooms which were vacated by the boys when Senior Chief was turned into a girls only school. The rooms, which were initially used as boys dormitories had remained unused since 2009 and many community members had expressed there willingness to turn them into a polytechnic for the local youths and school dropouts.

One day on 9^th Sept 2013, as I discussed with a local resident of my advanced efforts to have the County Government start a polytechnic in Kiambaa, the resident shocked me with information that, the buildings I was planning for a polytechnic had secretly been restructured and turned into residential houses for Senior Chief High school teachers. I couldn’t believe what I heard. Since it was late I couldn’t go to confirm the bizarre news and very early the next morning I rushed to the school to confirm whether the guy was playing a crude joke on me. I was utterly shocked when I found that carpenters were on site and they had already converted one of the 3 bedrooms into residential houses complete with kitchens, bathrooms and the sort. I was so furious I didn’t talk to any of the laborers working in the rooms. Many questions were whirling around my mind. How can the school do something like this without having any consultations? 

After taking over the play field, now they have taken over the only space left for the community to do their things. It was unacceptable.

I didn’t see the need to talk to the school administrators over the issue but instead rushed back to my office and hurriedly drafted letters to summon Kiambaa village community leaders to an urgent meeting to know why they had allowed the school to take over those buildings. I invited 25 local leaders to a meeting on 12^th Sept. 2013 which we held at the Kiambaa Asst. Chief’s office. Among those I invited were the 2 asst chiefs of Kiambaa and Kimuga sub-locations, leaders of Kiambaa Kikuyu Council of elders, Local church leaders, youth leaders, women leaders and a few village elders.

Encouragingly, all who received invitation letters attended. During the meeting, a big number were shocked to hear of what was happening at Senior Chief school and were very unhappy that such a thing could happen secretly behind their backs. Eric Mutura, a youth leader, narrated the many efforts by the local youths to be allowed the use of the playground which included physical confrontations. Gitau Kaido said as a local elder he was never informed of any developments in the school. Wanjiru Nduru narrated how they were chased out of their plots to allow for the school expansion and were never compensated.

Although some of the attendants of the meeting had known what was happening, they said they would never have supported the use of the dormitories as teacher’s quarters.

The meeting ended with resolutions that we demand the school to immediately stop any works on the dormitories and a meeting of all stakeholders be called, to discuss the issue.

Immediately after the meeting, I wrote a letter with all the resolutions, to the School Board of Governors and a copy each to the Minister of Education, The County Director of Education, the Kiambu District Education officer, the Area Member of Parliament, the Principle of the school, the Kiambaa ACK and Catholic Churches, Kiambaa Primary headteacher and other relevant stakeholders with an urgent request of a meeting to resolve the issues at hand. I also informed them that, failure to resolve the impasse through dialogue will result in the community taking over all that belongs to it including the plot where the dormitories stands, the playground and any other.

Luckily, the Ministry of Education took over the issue and called a meeting 2 weeks later held at the Senior Chief school’s boardroom.  The County Director of Education who I had briefed on the genesis of the conflict in a meeting at his Kiambu office was very helpful and it was resolved that all those pieces of land including where the school stands belong to the community and it was unfair to deny the same community the use of these places. I argued that, Senior Chief is a public school, and if anything, it’s the community which should be giving permission for the use of any facility including the playground and not vise versa.  

The area M.P Hon Paul Koinange had sent an emissary to this meeting and that is when he promised to turn the dormitories into a Secondary School starting the following year. Although my mind was set on a polytechnic in those dormitories, I found the idea of a secondary school equally appealing. The meeting resolved that youths can, from then on, start using the playground and the school should endeavour to fence off their compound to prevent community members from accessing the school or any interference with the students.

I was extremely happy that I was able to guide the resolution of an issue that had dogged the community for more than 3 decades through peaceful dialogue and I knew every other resident of Kiambaa village was equally happy. God bless Kiambaa.