The government, through Lands Cabinet Secretary, Jacob Kaimenyi, has issued over 1,000 titles to schools from 15 Counties. How did this happen? The answer to this can be traced back to Monday 19th January 2015 when Langata Road Primary School refused to let a powerful politician grab its playground.
The school’s board, comprised of civil servants, had earlier been threatened by senior people in government and its members warned that they stood to lose their jobs, if they persisted in making claims that the land had been grabbed. On Monday 19th January, 2015 we went to Langata Primary School to donate sports equipment and play with the children on the grabbed playground. The police, who were there to prevent us from gaining access to the playground, fired tear gas at the children, but we were still able to bring down the illegally erected wall. Thereafter, the President ordered that the school be issued with a title deed and went on to publicly condemn the police action.
The success of this protest has resulted in many schools across the country reclaiming their playgrounds, owing to the fact that on 22nd January 2017, just three days after the Langata Primary school protest, President Uhuru ordered for all 29,404 public schools to be issued with title deeds. Today, 840 days after President Uhuru’s directive, 1,000 schools now have their title deeds. This is something worth celebrating today.
Yet the sobering reality is that 24,405 public schools still don’t have title deeds and are under threat from well-connected,greedy land grabbers. The failed attempt to grab Langata Road Primary School’s playground broke the silence over public land grabbing, but much more needs to be done. The most interesting thing is that the Ministry of Lands is using footage from protests to celebrate this great news. Today, Irungu Houghton, who was dramatically arrested at the protest, was a guest at the ceremony. Activism wins! # 1000Titles # TeamCourage # StareheNiBonnie(Video of what happened at Langata https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=933464153340150&id=643875235632378&refid=52&_ft_=qid.6422284776691893804%3Amf_story_key.753133759021286692%3Aei.AI%407b79435a984c9133dae94717ad9d0ef8%3Atop_level_post_id.1549213365098556%3Apage_id.643875235632378&__tn__=%2As
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