The Covid-19 pandemic has led to closure of schools all over the country with the Education Ministry indicating that they may reopen in 2021.
Schools which operate on admissions and student activities have been starved off their source of income during this pandemic, a situation which several proprietors have had to adapt to in order to earn a living.
One such example is that of Pastor Maina who is the director of Mwea Brethren Schools in Kirinyaga County. The school head has opted to convert the now empty classrooms to chicken houses.
In a video posted on social medai, Pastor Maina explained that the lack of students had moved him into agri-business to sustain himself and his family.
A classroom which would ordinarily have desks has been modified to habour the chicken with each room able to accomodate over 250 chicken.
Blackboards which were previously used by teachers to illustrate to the students are now being used to record the feeding and vaccination programs for the flightless birds.
"They are put in separate rooms differentiated by age. The room which used to be for class eight pupils has 266 chicken and the Class six classroom has slightly less than those. We mostly have the broiler type," he stated.
Drums of water are stored outside the doors of the rooms while bags of feeds are put along the corridor.
"This activity is sustaining me until we get word from the Ministry on the way forward. In the meantime, I am planning to convert the dining hall which seats over 500 pupils into a massive chicken house for more poultry," he explained as he walked around the school compound which had become a ghost town.
Pastor Maina is not the only director to convert school facilities for other activities, as in April 2020, James Kung’u, the owner of Roka Preparatory School, converted his school compound, including a playground, into a farm to support himself and his workers during the pandemic.
{"preview_thumbnail":"/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/NSscmRtTvMs.jpg?itok=wzIm4oK1","video_url":"
He mobilised the teachers and other workers and planted horticultural crops, including cabbages, sukumawiki, spinach, onions, carrots and pepper. They also planted maize and started a poultry project.
"This project makes at least Sh2,000 per day from the sale of chickens and farm produce,” he stated adding that their primary market was the neigbours.
