Is Kenya Hurtling Towards A Revolution?

The rolling strikes in Kenyan secondary schools have caught most of us by surprise. We are stunned that the kids we sent to school to learn have turned into stone-throwing, book-hating thugs with the capacity to wreck untold havoc on property and their own future. We've watched with dismay as boys and girls have gone on the rampage ostensibly to avoid doing some exams called MOCK. And since the start of this shameful orgy, we've all watched as politicians, from the president down, have peddled prescriptions that serve no useful purpose except to remind us of their infuriating lack of depth.

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At this point it has become clear that the strikes rolling through the undulating landscape of the Kenyan secondary school has absolutely nothing to do with MOCKs. The only mock-thing about them is that they are mocking us for having such a limited understanding of what goes on in the mind of our youths. Lest we forget the example we have set to them, I want us to look ourselves in the mirror and see what those boys and girls have seen in us. Are you ready?

The Mirror:

1. Lack of Opportunity. These kids have grown up in a nation where they've been repeatedly told that opportunity comes to those who stick it out in school, work hard and play by the rules. These are lofty ideals that sound noble even to the youth. Except that when they look around them, what they see is their brothers and sisters who've worked had, graduated from universities across Kenya, but are now reduced to roasting corn/maize at the bus stops and marketplaces in the nation. Some have even seen their parents fired and out of work for months. In the face of such reality, do we expect the kids not to despair?

2. Tribalism. Since the sixties, our nation has struggled to eradicate this very negative vice. We have failed. And now, just when things started looking up, Kenya has regressed into one of the worst periods as far as tribal relations in the country go. As the boys and girls in our schools look at the picture we've presented to them, what they see is a father in Kisumu cursing that Jarabuon father in Kiambu. They see the mother in Nyeri calling the mother in Tinderet something ugly. They see their brothers and sisters bite their lip in anger every time some one from a different tribe is on TV saying something. Hate, hate, hate. That's what we've given them. These are the kids we've sent to school to study next to that boy or girl they heard being cursed and called ugly words at home. And we wonder why they mock us?

3. Corruption. Most of these kids came of age in the days of John Githongo. When they read the newspapers, what they see is stories about massive corruption in the country, and the vice is perpetrated by men who should be the example. When they read about Anglo-Leasing, Goldenberg, Turkwell, Ken-Ren and now the Grand Regency, what these kids see is a society where the rules don't matter. What seems to matter is how high up you can go by literally looting from Kenyans...and this only when you are well connected. Now, how many of these kids are well connected? Do we put ourselves in their shoes and wonder how they see Kenya? Do we?

4. A Culture of Impunity. Mta Do? Folks, whether we like it or not, the kids have only us to learn from. It would be nice if they followed the example of the penguins, which form binding communities where the young are cared for and trained to be effective adults. Unfortunately for our youth, what they have as an example is a president who blatantly steals an election and asks Mta Do? They have a police commissioner who sits at the Waki Commission and proclaims that he'd do everything exactly the way he did it if what happened in January happened today. Does he remember that people were killed by his forces? Does he recall the shoot-to-kill order by Grace kahindi? What should the kids learn from a man like that? And how about the fact that Kiraitu Muriungi is a minister after the Githongo tapes? Look, what the kids learn from this is simple. Impunity pays. Can we blame them when they get discouraged? Or when they think they can get away with burning dorms and classes?

5. Violence. Unfortunately, when confronted with a deaf and blind leadership, most societies resort to violence. That's what we did after the elections were stolen. But have we stopped to wonder what the kids saw when Kenya went through that meltdown? In those classrooms where we sent those kids, there were some of them who saw a friend killed, a father hacked to death, a sister burnt alive, a brother kill someone, a child left hungry, a home burnt. The list is endless. Yes, those kids saw a lot. But again, have they been given any counselling about the trauma they faced? At what point are we going to realize that our continued inability to do things right is creating a society of future delinquents and felons? Through our violent ways, we've legitimized violence as a means of resolving issues. So why are we stunned when the kids do what they've learnt from us? They are looking at our condemnation of them now and saying...what a bunch of hypocrites!

Fellow Countrymen, that's what the kids see when they look at us. We stink, don't we? But what makes it worse is that we now sit in judgement of them. We must take away their cell phones, we say. We must cane them. We must charge them in a court of law. Their parents must pay. We must expel the ringleaders. This is all bullshit. What must be done is for us adults to start acting our age, and be a good example to these kids. But that is a long-term solution. Here is what can be done to have an immediate impact in schools.

Prescription:

I. Let's avail books in schools in equal measure throughout the country. When I went to Kanga High School in the late eighties, the late Hezekiah Oyugi made sure our school was well stocked with books, excellent teachers and even good food. I turned around and looked at neighbouring schools like Rakwaro and Iterio and wondered how the kids in those other schools were expected to compete with us. It seemed unfair. If the government implemented a blind policy that treated all schools equally, in terms of resource allocation, the kids might actually fall in love with the MOCKs. What's keeping us from doing this?

II. Parents must start being there for their children. Admittedly, it's hard to be an effective parent when you must struggle to even put food on the table. Still, parents must be proactive in their children's lives. A father must teach his son how to be a God-fearing, law-abiding citizen. A mother must teach her daughter how to take good care of herself and handle herself with dignity. We must all remember that what society teaches our children is in addition to a foundation of learning started at home.

III. Family Planning must be brought back as a means of managing our resources and enhancing effective parenting. Whatever it takes, we need to work toward a society where we bring into this world only that number of children we can take good care of. It doesn't make much sense to have a third child when one can't take care of the first one, does it?

IV. We can make the MOCKs a school-specific issue. Let Kanga High School carry on its MOCKs. Let Lenana carry on its. And let Chebwai carry on its. That way the pressure to compete bigger schools right now, at a time when those bigger schools are more well endowed and resourced, is eliminated.

V. Finally, let me suggest that a society where God is not worshipped with the humility and reverence He deserves is hurtling toward self-destruction. There was once a time when the name of God, uttered in our presence, made each of us sit and take notice. Today God is just another name. I pray that we can focus the attention of our youths on God once again. We must do all we can to make God relevant. The best thing that can and will ever be said about the youth in Kenya is...They know Jesus christ as their personal saviour. That's when Kenya will have arrived.

This is not a conclusive or exhaustive prescription by any means, it's just my way of weeping for a nation that must turn a corner right now, or watch as we all hurtle toward a revolution!

For Love of Country,

Guest column by Sam O. Okello