Fight over money impairs Mbale School for the Deaf 

Between 2010 to 2013, when the Mbale School for the Deaf was crumbling due to administrative challenges, the government sourced for a religious person to save it.
This could be none other than Sister (Sr) Rose Nelima, a member of the Sisters of Mary of Kakamega, who was appointed as deputy head teacher in 2013. In 2016,  she was promoted as the school head teacher.
The school, which is government-aided, started in 2008 as a special institution for the deaf students in eastern region.
Sr Nelima, who is also the speaker of  one of the parallel organs of Bamasaba Cultural Institution, had tried to stabilise the institution and also increased enrolment of students to about 200 students.
But early this year, cliques among her staff started cropping up at the institution due to alleged irregular payments and recruitment of new staff.
The district leaders on the other hand, also accused Sr Nelima of mismanagement of funds.
Last week, the crises blew up after Sr Nelima suspended three staff members, Mr James Mwayafu, Mr Richard Wandiba and Mr Julius Wananda over indiscipline.
 The trio, who have filed an application to the district labour office for intervention, say they were suspended without a fair hearing. 
 Mr Wananda, who had been working as a cook since 2017, said he should be reinstated unconditionally.
“I want to be reinstated and paid my arrears for the past thirteen months,” he said.
In their letter dated October 22 to the chairperson of board of governors, Mr Stephen Masika, the trio say they were suspended after they held a peaceful strike over unpaid salaries.
“We are forwarding to your office our complaint of our being suspended from duty and yet we exercised our constitutional right to strike on October 20, having seen the board members in the meeting several times and yet we are not paid our salaries for thirteen months since September 2019,” the letter reads in part.
Mr Mwayafu who has been working as a watchman said the government should intervene.
“My family is suffering and children are stuck at home. We want the government to intervene so that we get justice,’’ he said.
Mr Masiga told Daily Monitor that more than 70 workers are demanding payments for the past 13 months.
He, however, added that most of them have no appointment letters.
“The school is almost collapsing because the headmistress has abandoned her staff without pay despite the school having a lot of money that goes unaccounted for,” he said.
Mr Masiga said the headmistress has failed all attempts to audit the school by the district internal auditor.
“We have written numerous letters to the Ministry of Education and Parliament to have the school audited by the district,” he said.

Background to conflict
Daily Monitor has learnt that Ms Nelima’s troubles started last year following the appointment of Mr Masiga as the board chairperson.
It is alleged that after Mr Masiga’s appointment, the board started raising issues of financial mismanagement at the school, which did not please Ms Nelima.
Mr Masiga said some of the funds the school receives include wages in form of salary, capitation grants of more than Shs240m per term, condition grants for construction, money raised as fees, and donation in form of equipment.
“The school board wants to understand how the Shs240 million for the two terms were spent,” he said.
In a July 27 letter signed by Mr Watasa Mayoka, the district internal auditor,  the chief administrative officer,  directed  him to carry out a special audit of the school in respect of alleged diversion of Shs280m meant for payment of works at the school and the loss of Shs30m, which was allegedly embezzled. However, the audit is yet to be done.
In another July 30 letter, the district education officer, Mr Boaz Kamuli Mayeku, wrote to Ms Nelima requesting her to allow an audit of the school.
“There is a lot of pressure building from stakeholders because the audit report has not come out. The minister for high education and the chairperson of parliamentary committee on gender, labour and social development in particular are very interested in that report,” reads the letter in part.
In another June 29 letter that Daily Monitor has seen, Mr Alex Ndeezi, the chairperson parliamentary committee on gender, labour and social development, indicated to the Minister of State for Higher Education, Mr John Chrysostom, to dispatch a team to verify allegations of mismanagement of funds .
“I have been receiving both verbal and written documents suggesting that the school referred to has serious problems, including financial mismanagement,’’ the letter reads in part.
However, Sr Nelima during an interview at the school last Saturday said the school has been audited by the Ministry of Education.
“The ministry has audited the school twice this year and that means the district should go by the report of the ministry.  It is simple,” she said.
On the issue of suspended workers, Ms Nelima said it was due to indiscipline.
“I don’t know about the 13 months they are demanding for arrears because we last paid in April and we have that on record, they signed for money,” she said.
However, the chairperson of Mbale District,  Mr Bernard Mujasi, said Sr Nelima has become unprofessional.
“On many occasions, the board has directed that there should be an internal audit but she has frustrated the district auditor and that is not right,” he said.