Viral images of dilapidated mud-walled classrooms with leaking, rusted roofs have ignited outrage over the state of public education in Nyatike Constituency, Migori County, as lawyer Willis Evans Otieno intensifies his campaign against leadership failures in Nyanza.
Otieno posted the stark photos of God Kwach Primary School on X, accompanied by a blistering attack on local MP Tom Odege. “This is the reality on the ground,” he wrote. “MP Tom Odege, now in his second term, keeps singing TUTAM – the pro-Ruto reelection chant – proclaiming ‘Baba nowewa e broadbased’. Fine. Sing all you want. But we don’t discuss TUTAM without delivery. Where are the classrooms? Where is dignity for pupils?”
The images reveal mud-walled structures in advanced decay: walls cracked and eroding, corrugated iron sheets riddled with holes, and bare earth floors offering little protection from the elements. Pupils study in conditions that fall far short of basic dignity, underscoring a broader crisis in rural school infrastructure.
By spotlighting God Kwach Primary in Migori – far from his home Alego-Usonga Constituency in Siaya County, where he has criticised MP Samuel Atandi – Otieno is proving his crusade targets systemic neglect, not personal scores.
His recent posts have documented similar horrors across Nyanza: firewood piled inside classrooms at Nyagwela Primary in Alego-Usonga, collapsing buildings at Barding Boys High School, and a crumbling 1980s administration block at Nyadhi Primary. Otieno has called on residents to submit raw, unfiltered evidence, insisting: “Development is not a speech. It’s bricks, desks, water and dignity.”
The irony is sharp. TUTAM, a chant associated with President Ruto’s reelection push and the broad-based government arrangement, is being wielded by some Nyanza leaders even as Constituency Development Funds remain unaccounted for in critical education projects. Odege, facing mounting questions in his second term, has been praised for water and road initiatives – yet the persistent mud classrooms at God Kwach raise urgent doubts about priorities.
As Otieno’s exposé spreads rapidly online, Nyanza’s political class faces a reckoning: political chants may rally crowds, but crumbling mud walls are failing an entire generation. Will leaders finally act, or will empty slogans continue to echo over neglected schools?
