PCEA demands action on health, education woes

The  Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) has urged President William Ruto to address issues affecting the health and education sectors.

It also condemned the recent attack on Opposition leaders, including Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) leader and former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, and his allies at ACK Witima Church in Othaya, Nyeri County, and urged them not to hold a mass protest to protest attacks against its members at rallies.

“We know that the placement of Grade 10 faced several challenges but the biggest nightmare was about the actual reporting to schools. Many children were not able to report to school because we saw empty classes. After all, families were not able to raise school fees or even buy school uniforms,” said PCEA’s Moderator Rev. Patrick Thegu.

He said President William Ruto, who said that children should go to school whether they have a uniform or not and that they can use what they were using previously but that has not been implemented in some schools.

“That was a very good thing but again we know that there are schools that are very strict that learners must be in uniform and we know that there are learners who have not reported to school yet,” he said.

Thegu said this after meeting the church’s business committee drawn from its 61 Presbyterians at its headquarters in South C, Nairobi on Friday, when they addressed the media on various issues affecting the country.

On capitation, he said it’s unfortunate that while the government says it has released the money, some teachers and their unions have come out to say schools have not received the money, thus affecting learning.

“We hear that there are inadequate resources in some of the schools.  Why is that happening if the capitation was released in time? Why are some schools complaining that they do not have enough resources to support education?” posed Rev Mutahi.

He added, “We do not want this paralysis in our education system.  Again, we know that the Minister of Education may not have been fully prepared for the rollout of the grade 10 new curriculum. Urgent measures need to be put in place to avoid any confusion in the lives of learners in our country.”

The cleric also cited the issues of the shortage of student book ratio, particularly in public schools, calling upon the governments to provide books.

“We are into three weeks since grade 10 was unloaded and the Ministry has not released adequate textbooks for learners and teachers and this has made it extremely difficult to deliver quality education effectively,” he said.

On the attack on the opposition leaders, he said it’s unfortunate that no one has been arrested so far.

 “And we are very disturbed that worshipers can be attacked.  We haven't heard of anybody arrested and that was very serious because worshippers have no arms. They come to church to worship God. So when they are attacked, it is so sad. So we would want the government to get to the root of that matter on who perpetrated that attack,” said Rev. Thegu.

He added: “Children suffered, mothers suffered and ordinary worshipers too. So we are speaking very strongly against what happened in the ACK church in Othaya and we want to be guaranteed safety.”

While urging the Opposition not to resort to national mass protests as they had promised last Friday if the government does not investigate the incident, find culprits, take action on them and stop attacks within 14 days, the church appealed to it to exercise restraint and use other measures.

“We accept that Opposition is constitutionally enshrined in our constitution. We appeal to them to exercise restraint. We have heard of a call for mass action and we know that mass action has happened previously in this country and we have lost lives, property has been destroyed, businesses have been disrupted,” said Rev. Thegu.

He added, “So we ask them to reconsider that call for mass action. Justified as it may be, we are still not fully recovered from what happened when the Gen Zs took to the streets. So we wouldn't want a situation where again, we are going to lose lives.”

On health, the church urged President Ruto to solve issues bedevilling the Social Health Authority (SHA).

“We appreciated that there was a change from NHIF to SHA but then, from what we have learnt, is that there is a challenge of hospitals being facilitated for the claims that they make. This has put patients in a very uncomfortable situation, particularly for those who have terminal ailments like cancer,” said Rev. Thegu.

He added, “They have to pay from their pockets because the SHA system is not working. So, can this be addressed so that we do not have patients who are already unwell, even financially, expected to get up for their treatment?”

The cleric said the journey to Singapore cannot be successful unless President Ruto fixes some of these challenges.

On voter registration, the church are called upon the youth, who are largely unregistered according to surveys, to turn out and register as voters.

The moderator also called for the quick replacement of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) after its former CEO Hussein Marjan resigned last week

“But we urge the IBC to exercise utmost caution, professionalism and transparency in the process of identifying and appointing a suitable replacement now that Marjan has resigned and there is a vacancy, we wish that they would do it and do it so well knowing how emotive elections are,” he said.

The clergy asked the government to act fast on the drought affecting some parts of the country to alleviate suffering and the increasing issue of road accidents.