Library ‘locks out’ learners as numbers soar

By VINCENT MABATUK and RUSHDIE OUDIA

KENYA: Distraught learners in Nakuru seeking to do private studies at the Kenya National Library Service are a bitter lot after the management failed to re-open since last month.

Although the management through a notice placed at the library entrance promised to resume operation on July 1, agonised learners are being sent away with the excuse the servers had crashed.

Betty Kiuna, a Form Four student, said she has been going to the library since the teachers’ strike began hoping it would be opened but three weeks later it is yet to reopen.

“During the first week we got a notice it was to be opened towards the end of June but when we expected to have opened we found the management had put up another notice extending the closure period without reasons,” she said.

Increasing users

Victor Kimani said it was unfair for the library to be closed at such a critical point for the candidates. “It is insensitive for the library to be closed at such a time teachers are on strike. They should do all that is possible to re-open it,” he said.

According to the library MD Samuel Muhoro, the facility’s systems got crashed after they concluded stocktaking. “We regret the delays but members of the public and learners should rest assured normal operations will resume by next week,” he said.

Meanwhile, KNLS fears they will be overwhelmed if the strike continues. In the past three weeks, libraries have recorded high attendance.

The number of students seeking library services is steadily increasing and there are worries this could overwhelm the institutions that provide an alternative to the children who are out of school.