The History
The town of Langalanga is located 10km north-east of Gilgil. It is a dilapidated shantytown that has grown up on the northern edge of the old colonial motor racing track. (“Langalanga” is Masai for “round and round”.) The total population must be well in excess of 5000, many of whom are under thirty years old and there are real rural problems. Unemployment is very high with only about 10% of the population in employment. Drugs, HIV, alcohol abuse and abject poverty are all endemic.

The Trustees of KST strongly believe that a fundamental change to these living conditions, and to attitudes of the local community is the only way to improve the quality of life for all in the area. As such, a number of future ideas were canvassed with the local community. One of these was the rebuilding of the primary school.

The Commitment
There was an over-riding need for a decent primary school and Langalanga Primary School was ripe for redevelopment. Three of the five buildings were built to house Italian prisoners of war in the early 1940s. They had had practically no maintenance since then and were in a terrible state. KST redeveloped all the building of the school to the same high standards as the previous project, the Kariandusi Primary School.

A classroom before we started........

Project Report

In September 2004, KST commissioned a land survey and the title deeds were obtained. Work started on the construction of a brand new 4-classroom block in March 2005. Amazingly this was completed and occupied by the children in late August, less than 6 months from the start of construction. The block was opened by Nigel Farthing who very kindly sponsored all the new furniture.

In June 2005, one of the original 'Italian prison blocks' was demolished and re-construction carried out by UK volunteers provided by Madventures. This has now been completed and is being used as a staff room and library.

By September 2006 the whole project was complete, with all the classroom blocks finished and the surrounded grounds landscaped. This included the completion of 2 football pitches, one for the school and one for the local football club.

Now that the school is completed, we have built a school for 880 pupils. It has an amazing 16 classrooms, a large, well stocked library, a staff room, a store and two offices. Added to this are all the extras,such as the football pitch, the fencing, two water points, the football stand, and a large number of trees planted. We have also completed a ‘Community Block’ for use of the whole community. This will be hopefully used for adult education and meetings of various community based organisations

Over the last six years, thanks to the Deputy HM, Mr Anam and a charity in Naivasha, trees, shrubs and flowers have been planted which have produced a very pleasing environment within the school grounds. This and the manicured playing fields, have elevated the school to become one of the finest Government primary schools in the Republic.

The Library
Finally, the new library is becoming well stocked. A big thank you to Hatherden Primary School for donations and to Avient for flying the books out and to Dragoman Overland and their passengers for delivering the books.) Also thanks to Barbara Terry, a teacher at Pembroke College who has helped with assembling the books in the library.

The Funding
For full details of the funding, please click here

Stocking the library from the UK....

The Opening Ceremony
On September 15th KST officially handed over the school to the parents, teachers and local education authority. It was an amazingly proud moment for Harry and Alison V-C who both attended the ceremony. They were joined by the ten riders from the second of the two 2006 rides. Over 3000 people attended the ceremony and it was overseen by the Junior Minister of Education, and the local MP. The speeches went on for five hours and two cows were slaughtered for a huge feast.

Post Construction Progress

We are very pleased to announce that over the last year, the standard of education in the new school has been far higher than before we started work. This really is the crux of what we are doing, the proof of the pudding, if you like. The achievement of the pupils is excellent and it appears that all the hard work and generousity has all been worthwhile.

One of the immediate problems after construction was that there were not enough teachers and no funding to pay for them. This meant that some of the classrooms that we had built were left locked and empty. it was therefore decided by the trustees of KST to pay the salaries for some extra teachers.

KST is now paying for half the salaries of four new teachers. Guaranteed for the next three years. The parents pay for the other half. In addition LLSF pays for one school leaver as an assistant teacher. Now have full complement.

With the committed school leadership and the exceptional range of resources it will be interesting to see if this key school’s results improve significantly over the next few years.

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