On this, no one can accuse Mutula of skirting the issue

By Njoroge Kinuthia

Education minister Mutula Kilonzo has been caught up in a mini-storm this past week, under fire from parents who believe he is out to miseducate their children. Mutula, who is not about to skirt the issue, is yet to successfully wriggle out of the conflagration but insists there is nothing to apologise about as he never said what he is alleged to have said.

Nevertheless, PointBlank and nuns still want an apology, perhaps not from Mutula, but from the person who dragged nuns into the shamefully skimpy issue of miniskirts. Pray, what have nuns got to do with it?

Holiday tuition

Away from miniskirts, Mutula has made a pronouncement that has made parents happy. His tough talk on holiday tuition is laudable. The minister has correctly noted that holiday tuition is a burden to both parents and pupils and warned that teachers who engage in the practice would be prosecuted.

Notably, previous holders of Mutula’s docket have failed to deter the thriving holiday tuition business. We hope Mutula has got muscle to root out this malaise once and for all.

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Very good road angers residents

The Minister for Roads deserves a pat on the back for heeding public’s calls, through PointBlank, and recarpeting the Kisumu-Busia highway. The highway, reveals Mr Peter Amos Mzee, is now very smooth and this is attested by the dizzying speeds at which some motorists are cruising the once pot-holed road. But, besides the motorists, not everyone is happy.

Barely one month since the road was completed, Mzee reports that the number of road accidents on the highway have risen drastically.

Mr Mzee says there is an obvious need for bumps to slow down the speed maniacs especially on the Darajambili and Chulaimbo stretch. Unfortunately, pleas by residents to the ministry for bumps seem to have landed on deaf ears.

Meanwhile, Utawala residents, says Francis Wanjohi, are very happy with the Government for building the Northern bypass. However, they are disappointed because the road has no pedestrian footbridges.

He wants a footbridge erected at Utawala junction next to Benedicta Primary School for the sake of school children who cross the road. What do you say, Mr Franklin Bett?

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Jim Cab ‘takes drivers for a ride’

Shiko, a regular Jim Cab customer feels frustrated on behalf of the taxi company’s employees.

Strange, you might say, but she claims after listening, on several occasions, to complaints of several of the popular firm’s disgruntled drivers, she cannot help but sympathise.

Shiko is particulary concerned about the poor salary that the drivers are allegedly paid.

She claims: “The neatly dressed drivers, ever polite and willing to pick you and drop you at risk of their own security earn only Sh13,000 per month.”

But things are bound to get worse, she alleges, as their employer has devised a new method of making maximum profit.

The company she claims has decided to be paying its drivers on commission basis, a new policy which was implemented without the consent of drivers.

Better

Shiko notes that Jim Cab with over 100 taxis on the road, rakes in a lot of money and ought pay its workers better.

“I have spoken to a couple on my ride home and discovered that at any given shift they take in Sh11,000 at the end of each shift. That is Sh22,000 per car per day,” says Shiko. Are these allegations true, Jim Cab?

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Wise counsel for city council

The city council has vowed to crack down on land owners who haven’t paid their land rates. That, says Murimi Mwaure, is in order. The Town Clerk has rightly cited the Rating Act as the basis for demanding payment. However, Mr Mwaure suspects the mode of clampdown anticipated by the council could be defective. “Clamping of defaulters’ cars or the mob justice that we’ve witnessed lately is unacceptable.

What I would like to remind the council is that Section 17 sub-sections 2 to 8 of the same Act provides that if a rate payer defaults, the council should file civil proceedings.”

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DON’T YOU FORGET

Did Ufundi Sacco refund former members monies?

Mr John Bosire, a retired Ministry of Public Works employee, wrote to PointBlank a fortnight ago claiming that Ufundi Sacco had no intentions of refunding him monies he contributed (in shares) over the years. Bosire said he had made numerous attempts to get his money from the sacco since 2006 in vain.

His children, he added, had been sent away from school for lack of fees, but this did not bother Ufundi, even after he told them. They referred him to Mr Albert Oyoo, who is in charge of refunds, but he did not help. Also having a similar predicament was Ms Lucy Kimani, whose mother Joyce Kioko retired from Ministry of Public Works in 2000. Kimani said she had made numerous visits to Ufundi’s offices in search of her mother’s contributions in vain. Did Ufundi finally refund the monies?