Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), Nyamira campus is set to benefit from the government’s initiative to construct a student hostel village of 580 units.
During the handing over ceremony of the construction site to Bokoh Limited, the construction company awarded by government to undertake the works, West Mugirango Member of Parliament (MP) Stephen Mogaka acknowledged that the decision to construct hostels for KMTC students is a game changer in Nyamira town and beyond.
“Lack of ample, modern and affordable accommodation has probably denied Nyamira KMTC campus the opportunity to be allocated more courses so that they can recruit more students to this great institution. But now this challenge will be a thing of the past since the institution will have capacity to accommodate more students and additionally be allocated extra courses,” MP Mogaka commented.
The hostels will enable our students to stay and study from a modern state of the art facility instead of being exploited by opportunistic landlords who have constructed substandard premises for our students at exorbitant rent charges.
“The affordability of the hostels will enable all students regardless of their social economic background status to live in a decent, safe and secured place and make learning comfortable,” the legislator stated.
“My projection is to have a minimum of 3000 KMTC students in Nyamira campus and at the same time request the Department of Health Services in Nyamira County expand its capacity so that Nyamira Referral Hospital is upgraded to a level six hospital so that medicine courses can be introduced in the facility in collaboration with Kisii University,” Mogaka said.
The legislator thanked President William Ruto for this initiative of ensuring that the struggle of accessing accommodation for our young eager students admitted from the entire country do not get challenges of accessing a conducive place to stay while learning.
KMTC Principal Ms. Alice Wagunda who welcomed the launch of the hostels said it would definitely enable them to expand the number of courses offered and increase their enrollment because the challenge of accommodation has been solved.
Nyamira County Secretary Dr. Jack Magara hinted that Nyamira County has already completed and operationalized the doctor’s plaza complex and an ultramodern hospital specialized handling mental health patients and clients and challenged the KMTC Principal to include a course on mental health because students would have a ready health facility where they would have hands on practical skills acquisition while undertaking that course.
The Regional Lead Nyaigoti Mogeni emphasized that the quality of works must be upheld throughout the works so that the project is sustainable and could be a legacy for generations to come.
“The contractor Bokoh Limited must collaborate closely with the consulting firm U Design so that they deliver quality works within stipulated timeline. Each progress on the construction process must be assessed and appropriate adjustments made in accordance with recommendation and advice from the consultant. Source quality building materials locally and give the locals an opportunity to do work at the site and only outsource professionals not available locally so long as they can prove that they have commendable past experience to prove they can do the work,” Mogeni said.
Nyamira County Commissioner Erastus Mbui said the hostel project is a mega economic economy booster in the County because it would create enormous job opportunities both for professionals and casual labourers for as long as the project would be ongoing.
“Apart from KMTC hostels, some people, especially our youth, can also seek job opportunities and tackle their challenges of joblessness. We have launched construction of affordable houses in Sironga and Manga and hostels in Borabu Technical Training Institute (TTI) and all those projects need people who will provide labour which will be sourced locally. So grab the opportunities and earn money from these multimillion projects,” Mbui noted.
The 580 units’ KMTC Nyamira campus hostel village, expected to be completed in 12 months, will comprise a Sh220 million 7 storey building whose construction would be supervised by U Design Consultant.
By Deborah Bochere
