Bungoma Leaders urged to revive Matili TTI
Bungoma County leadership have been urged to step in and help salvage learning activities at Matili Technical Training Institute in Kimilili Sub County after it closed down indefinitely due to wrangles that emerged linked to succession after the former institution’s principal Thomas Owino passed on.
Opinion leaders and professionals from Kimilili have now come up to call upon the ministry of education together with political leaders to be bold enough and offer a concrete direction towards achieving the right management for the institution.
You can also read, Matili Institute closed after students’ riot.
Engineer John Wenyaa from Kimilili said it is unfortunate that despite the institute having state of the art mechanical engineering machines which can be able to manufacture spare parts for different electronic machines, they have never been used since delivery in 2012.
He disclosed that the machines can be able to boost the economy of the County through manufacturing and supply of spare parts to reputed companies such as Mumias and Nzoia Sugar Companies as well as for locomotives in the Country hence there would be no need for importation.
“Currently the institution has less than two hundred students pursuing different courses, the number compared to the college status is worrying as the machines lying in the workshops are being wasted when they could be transforming the lives of the students” he said
He called upon Kimilili MP Suleiman Murunga together with Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka to offer practical leadership on the issue by ensuring there is proper management in the institution as well as ensure the machines start rolling for the benefit of their residents.
On his part opinion leader Joe Khaemba said proposals to upgrade the institution to become a university should not be embraced as the institution was put in place to cater for the education of the students who did not directly qualify to join university.
He said with consultation a university should be started in the region but elsewhere saying the Masinde Muliro’s family has enough land and are willing to surrender part of it to start a university saying the current technical institute should be left to cater for the needs of the students interested in pursuing available courses.
Khaemba who was at one time the chairman of the institute said it has the potential of transforming people’s lives as well as spur the economy of the constituency and the county saying the job market is currently pegged on the skills that the trainees have.
The County government had earlier given contributed one million shillings towards the insertion of a three face electricity system which is said to capable of powering the machines to start operation an issue that has since not been effected.
