Alunga: Adhis, Adhis…. Over here come niko hapa! (Adhiambo the well built girl moves towards him)

Adhis: Why are you calling me at this time of the day. It is class time. We are supposed to be in class.

Alunga: Come on Adhis, This is the last lesson to break. Come meet me near the toilets so that I show you love.

Adhis: Toilets. Those dirty school toilets. I cannot come. I am going to class.

Alunga: Adhis, do not forget, those toilets is where all action in this school happens. If you want a cigarret, or to talk to your lover you meet at the toilets.

Adhis: Don’t forget that girls have been raped near those toilets. I am not coming.

Alunga: Please come Adhis, Only this time. You know I love you.

Adhis: What if a teacher sees us going near those filthy toilets when it is class time.

Alunga: Forget it! Teachers fear going near those toilets, they think they will get sick. Furthermore, the toilets are very far from the staffroom or the office. No teacher can see us.

Ahdis: But, I fear those toilets,

Alunga: Do not fear, I am with you, me Alunga Mangula Jaduong. Your flower, your only omena in lake Victoria.

Adhis: Sometimes I think you are the only Mosquito in my mosquito net!

Alunga: Then let us go…

Adhis: What about our studies? We will miss a whole lesson.

Alunga: Forget the lessons. Masomo haina mwisho! But our love has just begun!

(They sneak off towards the toilets when again the bell rings. This time a group of villagers led by the area chief arrive towards the school office. The Principal meets them.)

Madam: Members of the Nyangandie Community, thank you very much for coming to see me. As you all know I am the principal of Your primary school… I have been the head for the last ten years and I hope to serve you for another…

Mbeche: (cutting her short) Madam, Stop giving us lectures. Go straight to the point…

Madam: Okay… Okay. I know how you all feel especially after the tragedy that befell us last week.

Jakadibo: Madam you cannot stand their and pretend that you know what I feel about my late daughter. You do not even have a child in this school… You don’t know how I feel.

Madam: To prove to you I know how you feel and I am for the good of this community my staff, students and I have raised some money for you Mr. Jakadibo, a cheque of 5000 shillings to help you in this time of grieving. (She claps her hand and Japuonji the class teacher appears with a big cheque written on Ksh. 5000)

Japuonji: Mr Jakadibo please step, forward and receive this token from Marwa Primary school. (Jakadibo steps forward slowly and in slow motion as the rest of the villagers watch him closely. Madam the headmistress smiles widely as she holds out the cheque ready to give Jakadibo. Suddenly Jakadibo changes his mind and climbs down from the stairs.

Jakadibo: No! You can keep the cheque. I do not need it.

Madam: Jakadibo, this is only a token! I know it cannot replace your lost child, but it can console you and your family.

Jakadibo: Madam Headmaster or head whatever you are, I am sorry I will not take the money.

Japuonj: Awori! Jakadibo, you are surprising us. It is you who needs the money, not the school. You can at least offset some bills you used when you were burying your daughter… wananchi wa Awasi, what do you think?

Chief: Mr. Jakadibo, I think that the school led by our able headmistress here has done well to give you this token. Please take it.

Crowd: Yaye Kabonyo! Take the money!

Mbeche: Kabonyo area needs the money for development.

Nyasakwa: My dear husband, Jakadibo, we need that money, just take it. We have to buy chiemo for our three remaining children.

Jakadibo: My fellow dwellers of Kabonyo!

Crowd: Eeeh!

Jakadibo: You all know, that my daughter, the one I named after my grandmother, Jaber Achieng died in a toilet in this very school.

Madam: Jakadibo, that is something that we all know and we feel very bad about it.

Japuonj: That is why we have raised money from parents and the community around to give you as a consolation.

Jakadibo: But why did Achieng Jaber die?

Madam: It was an accident.

Jakadibo: An accident! You call that an accident! The toilet was build during the colonial period when this school had only 12 students. Today you have 1500 students. The toilet was filled up and tilted to the side. That is negligence on your part madam principal! NOT AN ACCIDENT!

Madam: (Angered) Jakadibo are you calling me negligent?

Jakadibo: (Serious) Not just you madam principal, but the entire community.

Chief: Jakadibo, I think time has come for you to stop blaming everybody for what happened. This was just an accident.

Crowd: Ajali haina kinga.

Nyasakwa: Yaye Kabonyo!, I think my husband is still in shock after the death of my daughter. Please forgive him and give me the money because we need it.

Madam: Thank you Mrs Jakadibo. Please receive this cheque of Ksh. 10,000 as a sighn of pole from this school and the community. (Madam passes the cheque to Nyasakwa. She receives it amidst claps from the witnessing crowd. Upon reading it she shows surprise)

Nyasakwa: This cheque is written in my husbands name. I have to give it to him. (She hands the cheque over to her husband. Who takes it calmly, examines it and …)

Jakadibo: I have an idea on what I will do with this money.!

Crowd: Eeeero!

Chief: Now you are thinking.

Nyasakwa: We will use the money to cement the grave of our beloved Achieng Jaber.

Jakadibo: Noooo! I will use this money to construct a clean and stable toilet for this school. That is what I am going to do now… (He exists leaving the crowd confused… the chief follows him trying to persuade him to use the money on himself)

Chief: Jakadibo Wait! You cannot do that… The money is for you and your family… not for building a toilet… wait…(he follows him out. Others, apart from japuonj the teacher and Madam also run out trying to persuade Jawasi to change his mind.)

Japuonj:(Laughing sarcastically) I think that man has gone crazy. He needs help.

Madam: Japuonj, that man Jakadibo is starting to make me feel guilty for the death of his daughter.

Japuonj: Madam. Forget it ! What could you have done to save that girl. Blame it on the community. Theses are children belonging to the community. Yet the same community has not emptied those pit latrine toilets for the last ten years.

Madam: He will sooner or later discover that it was an accident. It can happen to anyone. ( Suddenly the bell rings and the schoolchildren pour out noisly. They get into groups and begin to play. Some boys and girls are seen going for short calls and long calls in different corners of the stage. Both boys and girls can be seen avoiding the toilets and dashing to bushes around the school. Madam Principal gets annoyed with this and…)

Madam: Those boys and girls are peeing right in the school field. Where is the headboy! HEADBOY AND HEADGIRL! Come here… (A boy and a girl is seen running towards madam)

Headboy: Present madam!

Madam: Prefects, why are those students peeing along the fence and the school field.

Headgirl: Madam. The girls feel unsafe in those toilets. Many times the older boys and even boda boda riders have waylaid them in those toilets and raped them!

Madam: Raped! How come I have never seen that?

Headboy: The boys feel that the toilets are very far from the classrooms, so they take a short cut by peeing near the fence.

Japuonj: Headboy go tell them to stop or we give them a big punishment.

Headboy: But sir…

Japuonj: stop your buts and go tell those students to stop wee

weeing in the school field.

Headboy: Sir We have tried to stop them but they just cannot stop .

Headgirl: They are used to going to the bush for their short and long calls.

Headboy: Infact, all students in this school fear them.

Madam: They fear what?

Heaboy: The school toilet. (Suddenly enter Jakadiboi followed with a group of villagers carrying cement, iron sheets, and building tools)

Jakadibo:(Shouting from outside the stage.) That is what I have been telling you madam principal. The school children fear the school toilet.

Mbeche: My daughter has not been coming to school because she has been in that time of the month and this school has no private place where a girl can sort herself out.

Vilager 2: Boys and girls use one sorry looking toilet for both short call and long call.

Jogweng’: The same toilet for boys and girls? Shame shame shame!

Villager 3: There is no water in this school. Students have to walk for over five miles looking for drinking and cleaning water!

Headboy: Even when we come from the toilet we have no water to wash our hands.

Head Girl: We have to walk for 5 kilometers to get drinking water for the teachers from river Nyando.

Headboy: Two weeks ago, girls from this school were raped when coming from the river.

Headgirl: We want water, Water is life, Sanitation is dignity! Water is Life!

Nyasakwa: That explains why many of our children are sickly. They cannot come to school and so they cannot pass exams.

Jogweng’: Madam principal! Don’t just stand their, do something!

Madam: People of Nyagandie! I have done my best. I have been constructing toilets but every time I do it they collapse.

Japuonj: I blame it on the type of soil in this village. The soil texture and the frequent flooding makes it impossible to construct long lasting toilets.

Jakadibo: Jogweng’, We have to come up with a different way of building toilets, so that they do not collapse on our children.

Nyasakwa: People of Nyagandie! Why can’t I teach you the method used by people in Sakwa?

Chief: Nyasakwa! Is Sakwa the place where you were born?

Nyasakwa: Ero jaduong, that is where my husband found me. In Sakwa people have a different technology of building toilets.

Jakadibo: Jogweng’ uuntie

Jogweng’: Wantie Jakadiboi!

Jakadibo: I think we have all that we need. My dear wife Nyasakwa is going to be the chief engineer. She will show us the new technology in making stable toilets that do not collapse on our children. I have the money to buy some bricks and we need from you is your labour!

Jogweng’: Yes we are ready.

Mbeche: Then what are waiting for. Let us get down to work.

Jogweng: Yeees, Let us go! (They break into a song as they prepare to dig out and build. Suddenly the principal cuts them short)

Madam: Wait! I said Wait.

Jogweng’: AaaaaH Iiiiiishhhhh! Wait for what?

Madam: We need to get permission from the Ministry of education in Nairobi. Allow me to write a letter and then….

Jakadibo: When the toilet collapsed on my daughter, did she wait for permission from Nairobi to die.

Jogweng’: Nooo!

Jakadibo: Then let us get working! (Thro mime \,Song and dance the community constructs a toilet, the students join in the construction. They then construct a stable foundation for the toilets. Then they dig a bore hole for clean water next to the school. They construct a clean basin next to the toilets for washing hands. They finish by unveiling a clean toilet constructed with simple local materials. The celebration )

Jakadibo: Thank you thank you! Ero Kamano! All the people of this community. I have the pleasure to bring to you the new type of toilets for our community. We shall call this type of technology….

ALL:Achieng Jaber Technology!

Chief: Juduong Jakadibo and you dear wife Nyasakwa. We are happy with what you have shown us. As the area chief I think we want to borrow from you this method of sanitation. We want now to form a local NGO to help us write proposals and build clean sanitation for all the people in this community. (The crowd cheers him on) Who shall be the chairman of the NGO?

Crowd: Mama Nyasakwa!

Chief: And what shall we call that NGO

ALL: Yaye Kabonyo Foundation: (Cheers and claps)

END