CAPTION: Makini Schools used to be among leaders in the Kenyan system of education as well as the Cambridge curricula, drawing on global best practice with five campuses in Nairobi and Kisumu, offering nursery, primary and high school education. Today it is a shell of its former self. Hardly a week after we highlighted the plight of a suffering workforce at the once high performing Makini Group of Schools, an insider privy to the matter has come forward to confirm previously reported evils being perpetuated by the new rogue South African management.
https://nyakundireport.com/mistreatment-of-staff-at-makini-schools-by-unqualified-hr/
As this author informed you in the last article, there has been a prevailing feeling on the ground that the school’s change in ownership back in 2018 has led to a drastic deterioration in the quality of working, living and studying standards thanks to an unqualified Human Resource (HR) Manager.
The rude South African lady, identified as ‘Jackie’, is reported to be totally oblivious to the Kenyan constitution and enjoys blatantly mutilating it at the expense of oppressed teachers.
Just days later, this site’s Chief Editor Cyprian Nyakundi has received another fresh submission from a former staffer who acknowledged the disturbing state of affairs attributed to an administration that cares less about results and is only greedy for profits.
Check out the chilling narration below. “Hi Nyakundi, Kindly keep me anonymous. It is very true about the article you wrote. I am a former employee at Makini Group of Schools and it’s true that school started going down the drain the moment Mary Okello sold it. It has a very arrogant director by the name Horace Mpanza who is not even ashamed of bluntly telling people off in their faces. “We are here for profit making,” we often heard her shouting. They do not care for the staff welfare at all and students. South Africans cannot come to Kenya to oppress us in our own country. This Horace Mpanza and the HR, an arrogant Jackie, are something else. All of them are foreigners harassing us in our own country over a school they never built. Mary Okello worked so hard to build Makini School. They have fired and declared so many workers redundant. Worse, they have recently faced out school transport and outsourced another school transport by the name “Mara Moja”. Let Makini parents be on the lookout regarding those vans. They have outsourced some vans that aren’t even branded and one can think it’s a matatu ferrying students. Those vans are reckless and not in good condition to even ferry children. Horace Mpanza has harassed staff, especially the most important staff who are the teachers. He has literally removed all the benefits Mary Okello used to give the staff. For example, he has denied staff from using the school buses; he added tax school fees on staff kids; he has refused to carry staff kids in the buses les the staff pays for school transport. To make matters worse, he has also declined staff to eat lunch. To add salt to injury, they haven’t bought fridges and microwaves for these said staff. They have warned staff not to be found going out of the school compound at lunch time they are to sit watch students eat meals and also watch over students as they play. Teachers in Makini are now over worked. Horace has deliberately refused to replace any new staff admissions esp on teaching staff. Anytime a teacher resigns or quits, he closes down the classroom and warns the headteacher not to even think of recruiting a replacement. Makini School has so far lost so many vibrant teachers best teachers to reckon with who couldn’t stomach this sabotage because of harassment and they decided to quit. Let parents know as far as they are paying school fees, it is important to conduct check ups in classes. Learners are now 30-35 at a ratio of 1 teacher. This teacher teaches all subjects apart from French, swimming and ICT. Imagine subjecting a teacher to such harsh conditions and, worse, no meals for them. A school which used to have a ratio of 18-20 kids per teacher. The classrooms are small, and they have stashed kids in those little rooms. Work load for the teachers is something else. Horace walks in a meeting threatens staff and bluntly tells them lf u feel you are not comfortable the door is wide open. How dare foreigners, South Africans for that matter, come to Kenya to harass us? White South Africans are fond of oppressing people. Let Horace know that Kenyans can decide and shut down that school in seconds. Parents out here don’t know the frustrations teachers are passing through. lf parents are not firm on even the ratios of learners in classroom to ratio of teachers, it will not be possible to deliver quality results with stress from management. Makini has now become like a public school. Let this spread like bush fire. Horace Moanza keeps saying they are eyeing profits. Mary Okello used to eye quality education. Help that school regain its sanity. These foreigners have to go. Parents, your children are suffering in that school. You just don’t know. A teacher cannot be under dire stress and you expect they deliver quality education. They threaten teachers day in day out with show case letters. In short, staff at Makini School are only left with one benefit: “Medical cover.” Poor governance from these South Africans. There is a parent who lost a child in Grade 1 early this year and, sadly, these oppressors could not even give this parent a dime. Only the parents and teachers contributed to this funeral. The management never gave out any cent till to date. What a shame it simply tells you the type of people that school is dealing with. Real time pretenders. Then there is another wannabe by the name Angelica Ouya, who was there during the regime of Mary Okello and a niece to Mary Okello. She is also in the top office of the school management. The school is going down the drain as she watches. She has also colluded with those oppressors to victimize the staff. If you are a parent in Makini, stay alert act and help the staff by voicing out these oppressors or you will end up not getting value for your money. Let the ministry of education intervene in this situation lest South Africans take down our school, which used to reign during those days,” the source writes.