Parents in Kilifi County have been crowding in financial lending institutions seeking loans to take their Form 4 and Class 8 students back to school beginning Monday 12, 2020.
The students have home since March 2020 when schools were closed down following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
The parents, most of them members of Imarika Sacco, a popular savings and credit institution, jammed the six branches in Kilifi, Malindi, Mariakani, Mtwapa, Bamba, and Ganze.
A manager at the Kilifi branch Peter Angore said immediately the government announced phased reopening of schools, all the local branches have been busy as parents sought emergency loans for school fees.
Parents who sought loans from financial institutions including Equity, KCB and Co-operative Bank told the media that the announcement took them by surprise even though the government had hinted that the schools would be opened this year.
“We are delighted that our Class Eight and Form Four children will not spend the whole of next year back in the schools as they will be completing their exams in April 2021. My two children in Form Four will then have something to do after completing their school,” said Kennedy Lewa, who turned up at Imarika to apply for an emergency loan.
Charo Muhambi, who turned up at Equity Bank in Kilifi for an emergency loan, said he has two Form Four and two Standard Eight children whom he hopes will complete their education in April.
“I was worried that my children had started mingling with other children with questionable characters even though I have been warning them to refrain. Some of my neighbours’ school children were involved in criminal offences with some being taken to court,” he said.
Several school children have been involved in different criminal activities including stealing, drug and alcohol use, defilement and rape in Kilifi County with some having been taken to court to face the law.
Last month, five secondary school students in Kaloleni Sub County were arrested and arraigned in a Kaloleni court after they allegedly broke into the office of Miyani Secondary School where they stole properties including computers.
They have since been in remand prison after they failed to raise Sh30, 000 bond each as their parents declined to assist them insisting that they should face the consequences for their actions.
Accident
Malindi, Friday October 9, 2020 KNA by Emmanuel Masha
Five die in grisly Tana River road crash
Five people died on Thursday after the car they were travelling in rolled several times at Laghabuna area of Tana River County along the Malindi-Lamu road.
Tana Delta Deputy County Commissioner William Makhanu, who confirmed the accident, said the black Toyota Wish saloon car lost control following a tyre burst and veered off the road, killing three people on the spot.
Mr. Makhanu said two other passengers died at the Garsen Sub County Hospital where they had been rushed for emergency treatment.
Three other victims were later rushed to the Malindi Sub County Hospital while the bodies of the deceased persons were taken to the facility’s mortuary, he said.
“The car lost control as a result of tyre burst, veered off the road and overturned several times,” he said adding “two more passengers died at Garsen sub county hospital where they were rushed for treatment.”
He said those who died on the spot were a child, a man and a woman while those rushed to the Garsen Sub County Hospital included the car driver.
Malindi Sub County Hospital Medical Superintendent Evans Ogato said the facility had received two passengers who had sustained serious wounds, while three bodies were taken for preservation at the hospital mortuary.
He said the two patients needed emergency surgical operations before being admitted.
