Category: Social Issues

Taxi-hailing application organization Uber has now increased its tolls, coming after protests from their drivers and MPs.

Drivers and MPs have looked for higher tolls, saying it would profit a huge number of self employed entities and make everything fair for different players.

In Nairobi, it will now cost Sh42 per kilometer, up from Sh35, and the base toll has been expanded to Sh300, up from the Sh200 beforehand charged.

The base passage stays at Sh100 and the expense for time spent out and about remains Sh3 per kilometer.

In Mombasa, the cost per kilometer is likewise up to Sh42 while the base was expanded to Sh200 from Sh150.

The base admission was expanded from Sh50 to Sh70.

The former street boy, Tredy Bradley, who became an internet sensation after his rendition to Mercy Masika’s Mwema hit will perform to hundreds of people in a concert scheduled for end of the year. He was taken in by a Nairobi single mother, Daizy Kayetch who lives with him in Syokimau and secured him a fully paid scholarship at Sankofa Academy.

The young boy went back to school this year despite dropping out while in class two and he has managed to score an average of 400 marks. “Tredy will actually be performing on stage during a New Year’s Eve concert for disadvantaged children in Kericho town,” said the mother of one.

Tredy had high scores in Kiswahili, Science, English and Mathematics and has been performing during school functions as well as took part in a television children talent show.

More than 30,000 youths are said to benefit from a Sh 2 billion programme aimed at creating opportunities for them through job market skills training.

according to nation media, USAID Mission Director Karen Freeman said that the amount has been committed to the initiative dubbed ‘Kenya Youth Employment and Skills (K-YES)’ for enhancing youth employment by supporting them to enroll in vocational training institutions for skills development. She was speaking during the launch of the programme on Wednesday at PC Kinyanjui Technical Training College in Dagoretti, Nairobi.

“Youth who drop out of school are often forgotten in the mainstream development agenda. Their achievements are often overshadowed by their counterparts who excel in academics. This initiative is therefore targeting young people who have not completed secondary school and are aged between 18 and 35 years,” said Ms Freeman.

On her part, K-YES programme Chief of Party Joyce Ogesi said that they are keen on exploiting the potential of informal sector that accounts for over 80 per cent of job opportunities in the country through developing a curriculum that ensures acquired skills are relevant to market demands.

“Thanks to K-YES trainings; those who dropped out of school are discovering that they still have numerous opportunities to advance in life. More youths are enrolling in vocational training centres to acquire skills like plumbing that experiences a severe shortage in the country,” said Ms Ogesi.

The programme is a successor to the previous Yes Youth Can and is present in nine counties that include Nairobi, Garissa, Kwale, Kericho, West Pokot, Kisii, Migori and Nyeri.

Motor vehicle owners in the country have eighteen days to register their vehicles again with the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA). This decision was announced on Tuesday in a newspaper advertisement, part of the agency’s effort to digitize all its records into the online platform Transport Integrated Management System (Tims)

The records will include motor vehicle registration, motor vehicle inspection booking, motor vehicle transfer of ownership, motor vehicle record search, driver license record search, driving license issuance, driver license renewal and application for road service license.

Individual car owners are required to create their profiles in the online platform by December 31, 2016. To create a profile, car owners should log on to the NTSA’s website www.ntsa.go.ke. All persons still holding onto the Transfer Forms are required to submit them to the nearest NTSA office for processing.

NTSA warned that no manual submission of transfer of ownership applications form will be accepted from January 1, 2017.

Standard Media Group business news anchor Joy Doreen Biira’s father has been arrested by Ugandan police and is being held for questioning. Joy’s father was arrested on Tuesday afternoon and family sources have disclosed that he was told to go and record a statement with the police.

The business anchor took to social media to share the latest event but expressed hope that he will be treated better than she was. Joy was arrested by Ugandan police last month and locked up for circulating photos and videos of a military fight that happened in Uganda’s Kasese town.

She was arrested alongside her fiance where she had traveled to a nearby village. She was released after being charged with abetting terrorism through the content she posted on social media. In her TV interview on the arrest, she stated that the dark moments under police custody were defined by threats, physical harassment and abusive remarks.

“That was the first time I was being roughed up and taken to a police station.” she said.

The names of students selected to join Form One in the 103 national schools will be announced on Monday. A total of 942,021 students are eyeing more than 780,000 secondary school slots. Those that have been chosen to join extra-county and county schools will know their schools before the end of the week.

The selection has been going on for the past one week in Naivasha after the release of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results on December 1. Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i will preside over the event to be held at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development offices in Nairobi. Candidates selected will be expected to report to school on January 9.

Education officials have remained silent on how the students will join secondary schools, given the low performance in the examination. Last year, 23,085 students joined national schools, which was an increase from 20,291 in 2014.

Dr Matiang’i said all the 5,143 candidates who scored above 400 marks this year will join national schools irrespective of their gender, region or centre.

“The performance of the candidates in this year’s examination was slightly lower than that of 2015,” he said.

The traffic build up and jam in Nairobi could be a thing of the past if a proposal to form a new body to tackle the menace is accepted. Transport Principal Secretary Irungu Nyakera on Tuesday announced that a draft Executive Order for the establishment of Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (Namata) had been forwarded to President Uhuru Kenyatta for approval.

Nyakera said that, the body would be mandated with establishing a mass transport system, commuter services and the public transport within Nairobi metropolis, when He appeared before the National Assembly Transport Committee. “the plan also ropes in satellite towns and will be extended to Machakos, Murang’a, Kajiado and Kiambu” He said adding that the National Government had already signed an agreement with these counties.

The PS assured that the Order was only awaiting President Kenyatta’s assent for it to be actualized. He further added that Sh400 Million had been set aside for expansion of the commuter rail project as part of the plan to decongest the city. “We will soon have a lot more commuter rails. We are going to sign a commercial contract for construction of the commuter rail from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to the Central Business District,” he explained.

Parents of candidates who did their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education may have to wait longer to know which school their children will be called to. This is after the form One selection was pushed forward to enable selection in extra-county schools.

According to Daily Nation, Education Principal Secretary Bellio Kipsang said the launch scheduled for Friday November 9th has been moved to December 13, 2016 at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), Desai road, Nairobi. “Please note that the reporting date for Form One still remain January 9,” said Dr Kipsang in a circular to education officials.

More than 942,021 candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination will be competing for about 780,000 slots in secondary schools. In last year’s exam, 759,603 out of 925,744 joined secondary schools with national schools having 23,085 slots, special needs education schools 1,424, extra-county 63,990, county 123,435, sub-county 481,318 and private schools 66,351.

A total of 207,141 candidates scored between 301 – 400 while 501,552 scored 201 – 300marks, 221,438 scored between 101 – 200 and 6,747 candidates scored 100 marks and below. This means that a total of 226,000 will be locked out of secondary schools and are expected to join youth polytechnics.

PICK ONE ELITE SCHOOL

The competition for top national schools is also expected to be minimal after 103 national schools were clustered into four categories. The candidates were only be allowed to pick one elite national school when making their choices.

The 18 schools considered more prestigious are in the third cluster, meaning no candidate can select any two of them. The schools include; Alliance Boys, Alliance Girls, Mangu High, Maseno, Starehe Boys, Starehe Girls, Nairobi School, Lenana School and the Kenya High School.

Others are Moi Forces Lanet, Moi Forces Academy, Utumishi Academy, Moi Girls Eldoret, Nakuru Boys, Nakuru Girls, Maryhill Girls, Loreto Limuru and Limuru Girls. A total of 30 national schools, most of which used to be top provincial schools, are lumped in cluster one.

They include; Pangani Girls, Maranda Boys, Lugulu Girls, Friends School Kamusinga, Meru School, Kapsabet Boys, Kisii School, Kakamega School and Mama Ngina Girls in Mombasa. The second and fourth clusters have 25 and 30 schools, respectively, mainly from marginalised counties like Tana River, Marsabit, Mandera, Wajir, Turkana, Kajiado, Lamu, Samburu and West Pokot.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has assured parents candidates will be admitted into public secondary schools based on merit, quotas, equity, affirmative action and candidate choices. “The selection will also ensure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds continue with their education,” said Dr Matiang’i.

The 8-4-4 system of education has been in the country for the past 31 years, which probably means most of us under the age of 35 years old have gone through this system since it was introduced in the year 1985 by the former president of Kenya Daniel Moi, However the system may soon change from 8-4-4 to 2-6-6-3 according to ghafla.

According to the new curriculum, students are expected to study for 2-years in pre-primary, 6-years primary, 6-years high school which will be 3-years in the junior secondary and 3-years in the senior secondary and 3 years in the higher education. The proposed education system was developed after the Needs Assessment Study for Curriculum Reforms study conducted by the Kenya Institution Curriculum Development (KICD).

The study sought the public’s opinion on the current education system and found that a good number of Kenyans want an education system that does not solely focus on examination but practical skills as well which allows learners to identify talent and uses teaching methods that are learner friendly.

Early education system will see to it that pupils acquire numeracy, reading and social skills. In the middle primary and lower secondary will have the pupils acquire general knowledge, practical skills, technology, values and pick a career at the end of the Junior Secondary School.

After transitioning to Upper secondary school, communication skills, critical thinking, technology and creativity will make up the curriculum.

if adopted, the last KCPE will administered in 2018 and the last KCSE in 2021 while the first secondary examinations (senior secondary) under the new system will be done in 2023.

Pupils in lower primary school may soon be taught in their mother tongues should the new proposed syllabus be endorsed at a national curriculum conference in Nairobi tomorrow. Those to be taught in mother tongue will be in nursery school to Standard Three but it will be optional for upper school pupils.

The national steering committee, comprising of all education stakeholders, met on Tuesday to approve the proposed curriculum before it is presented to the National Conference ahead of its implementation next year. According to the Basic education curriculum framework, the importance of mother tongue is to develop oral, reading and writing in order to lay the foundation for language acquisition.

“The aim of language activities at pre-primary school level is to enable learners to express themselves fluently. The purpose of teaching language at this level is to also assist learners to improve listening ability, concentration, understanding and memory,” adds the framework that has been developed by Kenya institute of curriculum development (KICD).

The Unesco’s Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) on Kenya also proposed that Kenyan children be taught in their mother tongue to enable them better understand what they are taught in school. “Textbooks, when available, are much less useful if learners have difficulty reading them, as was demonstrated in an experiment supplying textbooks written in English to Kenyan classrooms,” states the report that was released last year.

According to Angelina Kioko, a professor of English and Linguistics in Nairobi, the language of instruction in the country is English, and some learners in urban and some cosmopolitan settings speak and understand some English by the time they join school. “But learners in the rural areas enter school with only their home language. For these learners, using mother tongue in early education leads to a better understanding of the curriculum content and to a more positive attitude towards school. There are a number of reasons for this,” observes Prof Kioko.