I took over to be the 5th BOM chair in February 2022. This was after the expiry of the term of my predecessor Engineer Carrey Orege who had steered the school for more than two decades. My appointment to this position came very abruptly for it is something that I had never imagined before. This is not because I don’t like being in the school boards. I have been a board chair and patron to other schools. In fact, I am a class representative at Kabarak High school and also serving in the Board of Safaricom. Besides that I am a board member of the Anglican Development Services where I am serving as a director having been appointed by the arch-bishop of Anglican Church of Kenya. I managed to get some good education after I emerged top nationally in the then Kenya Certificate of Education (KCE) in 1984 and becoming top ten best student in the Kenya Advanced Secondary Education (KACE) in 1986. From there I pursued a medical degree course at a local University before proceeding to advanced it in the United States. With a scholarly background, my passion to promote education is very high. This has compelled me to take an active role in the promotion of education by participating in the building of infrastructure in many schools and sponsoring many bright children whose families are unable to meet the cost of their education. I am also involved in a lot of charity work as a philanthropist.
HOW THEN DID I LAND AT MARANDA AS THE BOM CHAIR?
From the university as I was posted to Kenyatta National Hospital where I worked for many years. As a consultant in gynecology and Obstetrics, I served at Kenyatta National Hospital for many years as the Chief Gynecologist and then Director of Clinical services. My outstanding performance caught the attention of former President Uhuru Kenyatta who appointed me to the prestigious and lucrative post of the Chief Executive Officer. However, because of my principles of zero tolerance on cartelism and corruption, I turned down the offer and resigned from the hospital to go into a private practice.
My refusal to take the offer baffled many people who could not imagine how I could refuse to become a CEO of the largest teaching and referral hospital in the East and Central Africa. Although to them this was a golden opportunity to make money, to me this could have marked the end of my hard earned reputation knowing very well what is happening there.
The news circulated in all quarters within the country and it caught the attention of the Arch-Bishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya who then requested me to serve in the board as a director of the Anglican Church of Kenya Development Services.
The year 2021 saw the country and the world at large start to experience the negative impact of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. The schools were struggling with a compressed academic timetable after closing for almost one year. This long break also had a toll on the students and some of them fell into bad ways while staying idle at home. Upon resuming, many schools experienced serious indiscipline cases from students with reports of students burning school properties dominating the local media. Maranda was equally not spared and the school properties were set on fire on two occasions. Coincidently, the serving school board at the time were also on their way out upon the expiry of their term. The school’s stakeholders therefore started to shop for a befitting replacement
I took over the leadership of Maranda High School Board of Management in February 2022. Having known the benefits of good education, I would like to see Maranda becoming a centre of academic excellent with good management culture where people are in constant dialogue and constantly benchmarks to get the best results in all disciplines. To enable the Board Members understand their role, we organised for a training which was conducted by one of the professional organization in manpower training which greatly enlightened us on our roles and mandate. Schools have had problems because of the BOM members who do not understand their role. The next step was to restructure the board sub-committees which we re-oriented to fit the purpose. I am proud to say that we have a very robust board which is very diverse in professionalism and experience. The various chairs of sub-committees are people of substance whom I can fully rely on to steer this school into the next level. We have finance, supply chain management, academic standards quality and environment, academic subcommittee, discipline, ethics and integrity, audit committee, human rights and student’s welfare committee. These committees are led by people with high experience and I foresee that we will take this school to the next level.
HOW WE STARTED TO CONFRONT THE CHALLENGES
Upon settling down, the BOM had to confront the most pressing challenge which was indiscipline. We found some few badly behaved students who had serious influence on the entire student body. The abuse of drug in the school was real and we had to look for deterrent measures. The use of sniffer dogs, drug testing on students and installation of biometrics gadgets were then introduced. We were also compelled to do a serious cleanup which affected some students together with some teachers. This gave a warning to the bad elements in the school that we were not going to sit pretty and see Maranda get drugged into a mud house.
In terms of infrastructure, Maranda is badly constrained because of the number of students which keeps on swelling. To address this, we constructed a big dormitory complex which we named in honour of my predecessor, Engineer Carrey Orege Complex. We had also put up other structures in readiness for the CBC but since there is a change in policy, those facilities will help to decongest the school. Plans are also at an advanced stage to start the construction of the multi-purpose hall which is envisioned to be one of its kind and a signature facility to the school.
Although there is a lot that has been done on the issue of water, it is still work in progress which we want to pursue to its conclusion. We are considering installing a direct pipe from the water source serving Maranda just like the one at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology. We are also looking at the possibility of exploring and sinking a borehole with higher water yield.
The Board have also started to work on a new strategic plan covering 2024-2028. The current one which covered 2018-2023 will expire next year. We will first have a review of the current plan to see what worked and what has not worked, the successes and areas of opportunities which needs improvement. Closely related to this is the School Master Plan which is very important in guiding the school’s infrastructural development. Infrastructure is a very big thing in the school, but unfortunately, Maranda has never had a master plan. I am proud to say that the master plan which will see a lot of changes in the school’s physical structure is almost through courtesy of the alumni. We are also strengthening the relationship between the teachers, the administration, the support staff, the parents, the students and all other school stakeholders. On the 2nd of September 2022, the students visited some old women at the village within the vicinity of the school. They cleaned up their homesteads and shared some meals with them. They also presented the old ladies with some consumable household items. This is something that we are looking forward to intensify by putting a community service day in the school calendar.
WORKING WITH THE ALUMNI
Another area that we are greatly focusing on is forging a close working relationship with the school’s Alumni. I do believe that alumni should be a major player in the school if given a chance and it is my dream that in the near future, they will constitute 50% of school board. This is because of their stake in the school which makes them to be more passionate. In that context, we opened our doors to the MAHISAA fraternity and started to explore on how they can reorganize the association to effectively work with the school. We therefore held a meeting with their class representatives at the Nairobi Club and had a very insightful discussion.
I am happy that we have a very strong PA chair and a very strong PA representatives from various classes who are closely working with the School Board. They have managed to win the trust of parents whom they are working very closely with to help shape the future of the school Generally, Maranda is in good shape as a school and my vision is to see Maranda rising to the top and becoming a centre of excellence in academics and churning out well-disciplined students who are very competitive globally. It is a vision that I am very passionate about and urging all the school’s stakeholders to play their role effectively for us to reach there.
FINAL WORD TO THE STUDENTS
To you the students of Maranda, you should know that you joined Maranda to study and get good grades which will enable you to follow your dream. Apart from that there is nothing else for you to do in Maranda O.K!
To pass your exams, you MUST remain forecast and be disciplined. We are not going to negotiate on discipline. Otherwise you don’t have a reason to be in Maranda and we will not hesitate to show you the way out.
Otherwise, I wish to say that Maranda is in good shape as a school and my vision is to see Maranda rising to the top and becoming a centre of excellence in academics and churning out well-disciplined students who are very competitive globally. It is a vision that I am very passionate about and urging all the school’s stakeholders to play their role effectively for us to reach there.