By Anderson Ojwang
Mwalimu Dr Joash Aloo is one of the administrators who has left an impeccable mark in schools where he has served as Chief Principal.
Dr Aloo is not only recognized for his administrative prowess but also for his transformational management skills, turning around decaying schools into some of the most sought-after institutions.
Dr Aloo has left indelible marks in schools he has led as a principal and the most remarkable one was Kabianga High School in Kericho County.
To cap it, during his tenure the school received presidential awards for community service, climate change mitigation through growing trees and assisting the vulnerable within the community.
At Kabianga School, he found the school reeling in debt with pending bills standing at Sh18 million with very little in the school’s bank account and left zero pending bills and Sh19 million in the school bank accounts.
“Dr Aloo left a surplus of Sh19M in the school’s accounts with zero pending bills. Yet on the contrary, he took over Kabianga School with pending bills of Sh18M with very little bank balance,” wrote the Board of Management Chairman of Kabianga School, Mr Lazarus Koech.
Apart from infrastructural development, Dr Aloo presided over remarkable improvement in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
“I am pleased to inform you as the longest-serving Board of Management chairman that the school’s curriculum implementation and evaluation strategies under his watch were thorough and saw the school academic performance progress gradually from a mean score of 7.4 when he took over to 9.4 during his exit,” he wrote.
Within his tenure, Dr Aloo paid all the pending bills and left Sh19 million in the school bank account when he took early retirement to become County Executive Committee (CEC) member in Homa Bay after he was headhunted by Governor Gladys Wanga and the late Kasipul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were.
He said the student population also witnessed drastic growth with the school becoming one of the most sought-after learning institutions in the country.
“It is during his tenure of leadership that the population of the school grew from about 1,400 students in 2015 to 2,600 in 2022,” he wrote.
That is why Koech wrote a testimonial on Dr Aloo in his honour, service delivery and changing the fortunes of the institution.
Koech wrote: “The above person has been known to me for a period in excess of eight years. He joined Kabianga High School on 4th June 2015 as the principal and was received by me on behalf of the Board of Management.
I wish to state that Dr Aloo is a focused, sociable and transformative leader who nurtured Kabianga School in seven years to emerge as the most sought-after school in Kenya. He oversaw the transition of the school from extra-county to national status.”
Koech said Dr Aloo is an administrator with a Midas touch who presided over turning around the institution in all forms.
“His leadership style was democratic and all-inclusive through building teams and this saw the school that had gone through mass indiscipline gain stability with least student turnover that was hitherto the trend.
During his tenure, the school infrastructure was improved through savings. He inculcated a culture of prudent financial management that ensured that annually the school made surpluses which were subsequently invested in infrastructure growth of tuition and boarding facilities,” he wrote.
Dr Aloo says he is driven by the desire to make learning institutions a better place for all stakeholders from students to parents.
Dr Aloo’s first taste of leadership was at Bodi Mixed Secondary School in Nyakach between 2002 and 2009 and then he moved to Darambili in Kisii County before moving to Kabianga between 2015 and 2022.
“At Bodi Mixed Secondary School, the student population stood at 16 when I joined and by the time I was leaving the population had risen to 383.
I transformed the school from a pure day school to a mixed boarding and day school and we had several students joining university,” he said.
At Darambili School, the story was the same, from a student population of 275 to 880 students and remarkable infrastructural growth.
Darambili became the most sought-after sub-county school because of academic excellence and discipline.
“I am convicted to transforming humankind in areas where I have been assigned. My mission is to leave any place where I work a better place than I found it. That has been my driving motto,” he said.
At Bodi and Darambili he engaged students from poor households in work-study programs such as painting and groundwork manual work during weekends and out-of-class hours to clear their fees, improve access and retention in school.
In Kabianga, parents paid school fees in kind by supplying bulls, firewood and other assorted foodstuffs, which was crucial in promoting quality education.
At Kabianga he improved the 42 hectares of tea and established a dairy which produced 200 litres of milk a day.
“The school has the potential to be self-reliant and I developed a horticulture farm and we did not buy vegetables because we had constant supply from the school farm,” he said.
Dr Aloo says through savings he was able to construct additional tuition blocks and boarding facilities at the institution.
“I left the school richer than I found it. I served my God in the best way. I feel honoured and happy from the constant reminder of my performance in the schools I have worked,” he said.
Kabianga offered holistic education by providing unique subjects such as aviation, electricity, French, German and others which hitherto were not taught before his arrival.
