Chicken in the classroom
A couple has seized a classroom block at Nakifuma Children’s Voluntary primary school in Mukono district and set up a poultry farm over rent arrears for over ten years.
Farouk Lubega and his wife, Amina Nakito explain that they agreed with the school management to pay them rent monthly or annual until they are able to buy them off, which didn’t happen to prompt them to make the buildings as compensation.
Currently, the management of Nakifuma Children’s Voluntary Primary School is stranded where to teach the learners from as the government reopens schools on Monday this week.
Racheal Namugambe, the Headmistress of the Nakifuma Children’s Voluntary Primary School, says that the school started as private but was taken over by the government.
She, however, notes that once the transfer was made, she says she was not aware that the buildings were not part of the arrangement. Since the school has no staff quarters, she says that she was surprised when the couple captured their classroom blocks and started using them for poultry-keeping all of a sudden during the first lockdown in 2020.
Namugambe says that they have improvised at the moment by dividing some classrooms with plywood to create space for lower primary pupils as they wait for a government response.
The area LC V councilor, Bernard Ssempaka, says that the buildings were taken on the right grounds. Ssempaka appeals to the government to intervene in the matter as soon as possible.
URN visited the school and noticed that the couple’s home is right next to the school. They have since taken over the Primary one, two, and three classroom block.
The Mukono District Education Officer- DEO Rashid Kikomeko, says that they are bonified occupants of the school.
He reveals that the original landowner got a loan, which she failed to pay and they bought the land from the bank and not the building as they claim.
–URN
