Kamuti Mobile Library named after a simple tea boy

By LORRAINE JIMAL
AFTER giving the National Library and Archives 45 years of loyal service, a simple tea boy will have his name remembered with a mobile library named after him.
It was a proud moment for Francis Kamuti, 61, from Wabag, Enga, who witnessed the launch of the Kamuti Mobile Library, along with the 2021 National Book Week, re-naming of the Hohola Public Library and the Office of Libraries and Archives 2021-2023 corporate plan in Port Moresby yesterday.
Kamuti said he was happy, grateful and proud when his employer decided to honour him for his years of service and commitment by naming the mobile library after him.
He said he had seen generations of children come and go using the library and they knew him as a familiar face, but, with the naming of mobile library after him, the rest of the country would know him too.
Kamuti said he started working as a teenager in 1976 for the library staff and helped out as a general purpose helper with tasks, including making tea and coffee for his boss and the staff, as a guard watching over the facility and wherever he was needed in the organisation.
Kamuti dropped out of school in grade six in 1974 before coming to the city, and while he did not have the education to work at a proper job in an office he was trustworthy, honest, diligent and committed and was given the task of opening and locking the office, hence, his unofficial title of “key boy”.
“I come in every day to open the doors for staff, make sure everything is ready before my boss comes in,” Kamuti said.
He said although he had stopped his schooling at grade six, working in the library had been privilege and seen the need to read and improve knowledge.
Kamuti said many of the country’s most notable leaders and heads of departments such as Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika and other successful people in the country understood the importance of reading books.
He urged the children to read a lot to gain a range of knowledge as well as to learn English to be able to understand and communicate effectively.
Kamuti said libraries were an important resource that needed to be maintained and made available to all people – young and old.
He said he would be retiring from his job soon, but was a happy man knowing that his name would live on after he left.