Over 600 pupils of Namakeba community school in Kasaali ‘A’ in Nairambi Sub County in Buvuma district are studying under a tree following the demolition of their classes to pave way for the construction of commercial buildings.
Leaders under the spotlight are the District Chairperson Adrian Ddungu, NRM District Chairperson Fred Wandera, Resident District Commissioner Godfrey Tilutya, Nairambi Sub County Chief William Sserunjogi, LC3 Chairperson Yunusi Maganda, DPC Emily Angomuko, and District Secretaries for Health Amina Nakilanda and for Production, Muzamiru Bukumune.
The school land measuring close to three acres was partitioned into 23 plots currently owned by leaders who proposed shifting of the school from the land claiming that it belongs to National Forestry Authority.
This has left residents are worried over students failing to complete a term and the academic year since they are now chasing after tree shades from a single tree left standing. They accuse leaders for demolishing the school before constructing a new one but instead rushed to partition and construct commercial buildings for themselves.
The School Deputy Head Teacher David Singaki says the school started as a community school to save children from walking long distances in 2016 before it was coded by government to start receiving support in 2019.
He notes that to their surprise after demolition of blocks during the second covid-19 education recess, leaders have not provided an alternative yet. According to Singaki, the school enrolment goes up to 1000 but currently pupils over 400 pupils did not pick interest of studying under the tree.
“All the seven classes gather under one tree; the rest of the trees were cut down at the time of demolishing the buildings. We need serious intervention by the government.”
The Insight Post has established that this is the only school in the sub county and once it stops operating pupils are required to move a distance of about 8 kilometers to study in another school of Bukaali primary located in Buwooya sub county on top of pathing through a bushy road.
Currently land claimants have also started cutting down trees in preparation of other developments. Both the District and LC3 Chairpersons have already laid foundations for commercial buildings.
Adnan Yekka, a member on the school management committee says their efforts and hope for having a government aided school within the area has been deeply buried, at the same time they are worried of the increasing number of pupils roistering in the community.
One of the parents, Vincent Kizito says the demolished school classroom blocks could help separate learners but now close to a month of reopening learners are converging in tree.
The District Education Officer Hussein Bugembe says the school had successfully gone through the government’s coding process and already allocated some funds to establish proper buildings.
He however declines to reveal circumstances under which demolitions were done before establishment of the new school since the process involves many high profiled district officials.
The accused parties including the DPC and RDC have denied possessing plots on the contested land however they have found it hard to disregard accusations of attending meetings that resolved to demolish the school.
The District Chairperson, Adrian Ddungu says they resolved to demolish the school after identifying another land for the construction of the school since the former is part of the forest land.
He notes that the district has also secured Shillings 180 million they intend to use for the construction of the new school. The chairperson has however failed to explain who he has ended up constructing on the same land he claims to belong to National Forestry Authority.
The Chairperson of the School Management Committee, Joseph Wowa explains partitioning of land saying that various district leaders find it hard to open up about the land but in one of the meetings they had, decided to develop the contested school land so as to benefit the society since there is plans of relocating to a new place.
Meanwhile, Buvuma District Member of Parliament Robert Migadde says the entire process of shifting the school needs to be investigated since it lacks transparency.
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