Pupils bank on rabbits to raise high school fees

Pupils of Inkisanjani Primary located in Oloitokitok, Kajiado County, check the well being of their rabbits which will help raise money to pay for their Secondary education. [PHOTO: NANJINIA WAMUSWA/Standard]

The bell rings at 12.30pm, interrupting the quiet of the early afternoon at Inkisanjani Primary School in Oloitokitok, Kajiado County. It is time for lunch.

As the rest of the school breaks out for lunch, Class Eight pupils head for the rabbit hatches to feed their bunnies.

This has been a daily routine at the school since rabbit keeping was introduced last year.

Jane Ntawuasa, 13, comes from a poor family. She hopes money from rabbit farming will see her through secondary education and to the university where she hopes to study medicine.

For now, she is assured that her fees will be paid once she joins secondary school next year, at least for her Form One education.

“My parents are poor and cannot raise fees for my secondary education. A well wisher supports my schooling at the moment. But I am banking on the rabbit project for my secondary education and to keep me in school so I don’t get married off at an early age,” says Ntawuasa.

Raphael Nkapapa wants to be a pilot. And even though he knows his family cannot afford his secondary school fees, he works hard so he can join a good school next year.

“I am happy this project will see me through secondary school,” says the 13-year-old.

The rabbit keeping project has helped reduce a high drop-out rate in the school. It is sponsored by Bayer East Africa Ltd, a healthcare and agriculture company, as part of its corporate social responsibility.

Anthony Maina, the Bayer East Africa communications manager, says poverty is to blame for the high school drop out numbers at Inkisanjani, which is the only primary school around for 30 kilometres.

“The number of pupils leaving Class Eight has been significantly low compared to enrollment at lower primary. We resolved to intervene through the rabbit keeping project,” he said.

But why rabbits?

Rabbits don’t need a lot of space, are light feeders and therefore cheap to maintain, says Maina.

With the help of rabbit breeders Alcare Group, the company provided the school with 50 mature rabbits - 35 does (females) and 15 bucks (males). It also constructed rabbit hutches and secured the area with a fence.

Pupils are required to take care of the rabbits in pairs under the supervision of an attendant and teachers. When they complete school, those in Class Seven take over the project.

Apart from feeding rabbits on commercial pellets provided by the sponsor, the pupils also feed them on wilted sukuma wiki or cabbage leaves and weeds from the open fields.

“Managing rabbits is simple and fun,” says Nkapapa. Headmaster Gideon Mapi says the project has helped pupils learn rabbit keeping. “Allocating a rabbit to two pupils makes them love and care for them with passion. Some of them spend a lot of time tending to the rabbits,” he says.

Beneficial venture

The project, Mapi says, has drawn more pupils, who would otherwise be herding their fathers’ cows, to school.

“Some 16 pupils in Class Eight had dropped out of school but came back because of the project. They are happy to be part of rabbit rearing project,” he says.

Joel Ochieng, the teacher in charge of the rabbit project, says the venture has been positively taken up by the pupils.

“They now know that apart from cattle, there are other more beneficial ventures they can engage in,” he says.

He reveals that initially pupils’ response to rabbits was slow: “It is because this is a community that was learning something new. But nearly all of them want to start the same in their homes when they leave school,” he says.

Meanwhile, parents have also embraced the venture but most are anxious to see how it makes money.

Whenever the rabbits give birth, the bunnies are sold to Alcare Kenya at Sh1,500 each.

George Kibanya, the Alcare Kenya Ltd executive director, says they have ready market for the rabbits.

By the end of the year, each pupil would have made at least Sh15,000 from the project.

On average, each rabbit will produce eight bunnies each, totaling 280 bunnies from the 35. Each rabbit is then sold at Sh1,500, translating to Sh420,000. As each rabbit gives birth at least four times every year, the school will raise as much as Sh1,680,000.

With 94 pupils in class, each of them will take home at least Sh17,872 at the end of the year. This amount is paid directly to the secondary school a student is admitted to.

And like all other farming ventures, this project also experienced some challenges. Due to the high temperatures in the region, some bunnies die as soon as they are born. But the rabbits are adapting to the environment.

With the success of the project, Kibanya says they want to introduce rabbit keeping in other schools in the region. They also want to promote rabbit keeping among the Maasai.

“We are planning for a nyama choma forum that aims at encouraging the community to start eating rabbit meat,” he adds.