According to the Basic Education Act (I won’t delve into the details of Millennium Development Goal 2 Target 3 today because of what I have witnessed today but still this should be kept in mind). That every child of less that eighteen years (boys and girls alike should be in school is not a big deal to responsible Kenyans…or the need to complete a full course of primary school, if not studying, or at least doing the listening to someone who is well equipped in doing the same is now but becoming news). I also believe that it is the mandate of the sitting government to ensure that the implementation of such ideas should be ensured. And when I was out of the country for the many years I have been, a friend of mine once told me that the Current government had made some huge promises for example that each student who had performed best in each county would be send to school by the government…(by the way I was also told that the new coalition in town had gone to the extent of promising free Secondary School Education…which I thought was one great idea to our country in this century…because for this reason I wanted to go back to Secondary school as I told you earlier on, to finish up my education as I had managed to go to school by default, not by choice…I simply never had fees!
But I was so surprised to see that this was never meant to be or as per what I had finally found out! To my amazement, this was just but a campaign strategy, and would never reach to fruition, not even in the near future! So many messages of what had become of the promises started lingering my mind. The truth of the matter came in when I gave a second thought to the words of the Former Attorney who had commented in an interview that “…in the corridors of education sector lies a great pile of confusion” (sic)…these words I came to accept as true truth. They seem to be very true in the current milieu! Just the other day before I returned home, someone had either proposed or suggested something like ‘school-going children should be instructed in their own mother-tongues…’ How again am I hearing that children are no longer going to school to learn but to eat!!! When will an able government start working to stem out the proverbial menaces that degrade our societies (Ignorance, Poverty and Hunger)!!!Was this not what our forefathers set to fight to eradicate?
If the Kenyan Government cannot afford to feed or support its people in any sector or in any part of the country, then when will the people of Kenya be responsible enough to take on their leaders and remind them of their mandate? Should someone come from another planet to do this? Do we really need to be reminded of our responsibility as a nation? I think it is high time everyone took initiative to be custodians of our own communities and guard every other one’s brother and sister. We can as well resort to seek for help from the third party or neighbor, than sit back and pretend that things are going on well if at all nothing is happening in the first place. But what I am sure of is that this is not all we are left with.
I personally went to Baringo County last week to attest to what was being reported in the media. It was so sad to see such lot hit by a calamity that can possibly be redeemed. What I saw drove me back to Nairobi, not because of the hardship in this place of the country but because of the cause that I would start to save the people of Turkana. The picture would surely make any visitor to this beautiful country fear even to visit some of our historic sites like the Lake Turkana itself. But neither facing the pangs of hunger nor getting prepared to face the reality of what the people there are facing is not big deal, but to start something tangible for my people is all that matters to me now. I was even tempted to instruct my employer to facilitate my pledge that my next months’ salary should go straight to the people of the North. I am sure that my salary, added with some allowances given to our big wigs, if not to mention my MP’s or my MCA’s business profits (because I do not know them in person, but at least I know some of their booming businesses around town), can feed a person in the Northern region of Kenya for a whole moth! Can we all-together save a life in Turkana? A KENYA FOR KENYA SEASON TWO should be re-launched. Please do not bring in here a government agent to collect our contributions because -and this I am very sure of- some of these proceeds might never and will never reach our dying people in Turkana!