Kiambu teachers unable to raise rent live in classrooms

 

Six teachers are living with their families in classrooms in Uthiru, Kiambu, after they were ejected from their rental houses for failing to pay rent.

The teachers are among many others whose main source of income was cut off by the outbreak of Covid-19 in the country in March. 

Paul Obuya, 30, is among the teachers housed at Damacrest School, a private institution. 

Obuya and five of his colleagues, who requested anonymity, said they were forced to sell most of their household items to settle rent arrears because they no longer received salaries.

In April, their employer and school director Florence Wamakima intervened and accommodated them in some of the classrooms. She also gave them food.

“We were no longer able to pay house rent or meet other basic needs. Our director housed us in classrooms. She allowed me to stay in one of the classrooms, which I have made my home,” Obuya said. 

He said he moved into the classroom with his wife and three children in April as he could no longer afford the Sh7,000 rent he used to pay.

"I sold some of my household items to settle rent arrears before the landlord allowed me to move out of his premises. I raised Sh10,000 from the sales.”

Pre-Covid, Obuya used to earn Sh25,000 from the school. 

The teachers occupy some of the classrooms on the fourth and fifth floors of the five-storey complex. The building hosts classrooms, the staff room, boardrooms, and the administration offices.

When the Star visited the school on Tuesday, the teachers were teaching pupils online while their families were in the classrooms, which have now been turned into living quarters.

“I wish to say that there is no hidden agenda behind it. We are just trying to do virtual learning. We think that by next year, everything will be back to normal,” Obuya said.

He said the school pays them a little money for the online classes besides accommodating them.

Director Wamakima said she has also accommodated a few support staff members in the school.  

She said before Covid struck, she had no problems paying teachers and other staff members but since parents no longer pay school fees, she is unable to pay salaries.

Wamakima said the only option she had to help her employees was to accommodate them in the school and give them food.

She said the reason she opted to help her staff members was because her mother struggled a lot while raising her.

“I am a 'hustler'. I was born and raised in Kawangware by a single parent. We were among the first ones to sell sukumawiki near Nakumatt Prestige along Ngong Road. My mother couldn’t afford school fees,” Wamakima said.

Wamakima said she went to Precious Blood High School where her school fees was paid by Catholic nuns as she worked for the school.

She said she went through the university with the help of the Higher Education Loans Board. She studied Education and became principal in several public schools between 2004 and 2014 before establishing her own schools.

“I know what it means to be poor. I was born and raised in Gatina,” Wamakima said.

She said she has educated and employed several children as a way of giving back to the community.

Damacrest Primary School, Uthiru, has 177 teachers with 800 children. The school conducted interviews and hired 26 more teachers in May as a way of getting prepared for the schools’ re-opening.

Teachers across the country, especially those from private schools suffered more as a result to Covid-19.

Wakamima runs another school, both primary and secondary, Damacrest Thogoto in Dagoretti South, Kiambu county.