Every rainy season, life at Kiine Girls High School slowed to a crawl. Teachers trudged through thick mud. Students arrived soaked and exhausted.
Parents, on the other hand, debated whether meetings were worth the struggle while suppliers often refused to deliver food, fearing their vehicles would get stuck.
“This road is just about one and a half kilometres,” says Chief Principal Jane Nyawira Murigu-Waweru. “Yet the school used to suffer when it rained. The buses could not access. Teachers came very muddy and tired. Parents would question themselves before embarking on the journey to school, ‘are we going or not going?’”
Located in Kiine, Kirinyaga County, the school serves about 500 girls. But access was always its biggest obstacle.
“Sometimes the river near the culvert would flood and close the road completely,” Ms Murigu-Waweru says. “That is why we said the school was next to the road, but very near yet very far.”
According to the Chief Principal, the difficulties extended beyond daily commuting.
Suppliers declined to deliver food and materials, causing delays that put the school at risk. Emergency services were also unable to reach the compound.
“In case we needed ambulances or fire brigades, we were not safe,” she says.
Local resident Reuben Mwangi knows that struggle intimately.
Born and raised in Gatithi village, right opposite the school, he remembers when even a wheelbarrow could not pass the flooded and muddy road.
“We used to carry things on our shoulders to the tarmac,” he recalls. “When it rained, water would just be stagnant on the road. We had to find shortcuts, even passing through the church to get to the road.”
The idea of a proper road, he says, once felt impossible.
“We had never seen a tarmac road going into rural areas,” Mwangi says. “We only used to see tractors coming to cultivate farms, not to build roads. We thought this was just a dream.”
That dream became reality on April 26, 2025, when Deputy President Prof. Kithure Kindiki commissioned the Kiine Secondary School Access Road.
Built by KeNHA under the Kenol–Sagana Road Project, the 820-metre road includes proper drainage, finally preventing seasonal flooding.
For the school, the difference has been profound.
“The distance has been shortened,” Ms Murigu-Waweru explains. “What used to take one hour now takes 20 minutes walking. By car, it is about five minutes.”
Teachers now arrive on time and leave without fear, even in the rain. Students no longer struggle through mud. Supplies arrive reliably. And in emergencies, help can reach the school.
Mwangi says the road has changed the entire community.
“When the Deputy President came, I realised this was not a promise, it was something we could see,” he says. “All of us say thank you. We are grateful.”
After 50 years of isolation, Kiine Girls is no longer “very near yet very far.” It is finally connected to opportunity, dignity, and the future.
