The 20 Acres

MITS has a 20 acre piece of land not far from the girls' and boys' centers at Kamulu. We have built our training center there and are already training students in cooking, hairdressing, woodworking and sewing there. A local government official, a few local citizens and some thugs invaded the land in 2009 and built a school on the other end of the property, taking about 8 1/2 acres from us. They also put a barbed-wire fence across the property. In order to keep them from seizing more land, which 4 local citizens were threatening to do, we have built a facility for teaching agriculture/welding and a staff house along their fence. Here is a picture of the almost completed staff house. One of our single Team members will move in when it is finished.

Process in court is very lengthy in Kenya and prone to many delays. The most recent court date was today, January 15, but it has been once again postponed, to Feb 24. The other side served an affidavit to our attorney just before going into court. In it they claim ownership of the land because it was "public property for community use" or something like that. They have no supporting documents, since we hold title to the land under a 99-year Certificate of Lease.

Here is a picture of the staff house. It is 13 x 21 with indoor toilet/shower and with electricity. When we are ready to have a married couple living there, we can easily expand the house to double the size, adding 2 small bedrooms or one large one. The school built by the invaders is in the background; you can also see the fence. We will build a sidewalk from the road, passing by the Ag/Weld building on out to the staff house.

Thank you to those who have made it possible for us to have nearby housing for our Team members, some of whom have been living several miles away from the campus.