As I engaged with the youth, I saw great promise. My heart swelled with hope. I am certain as the sun will rise today (unless you are in Nairobi) that more than half of Kenyans have no idea where Wajir is.
Another half most likely don’t understand or cannot comprehend the hard-scrabble life the people of this region lead.
A Kalenjin friend of mine once told me that his people have a saying about the dry weather; that during the usually long and harsh droughts, they talk about coughing and not spitting. Forgive me but it is used to illustrate how hard life can get.
That is the life most of the inhabitants of most parts of North Eastern Kenya lead day in, day out. I had been invited by the County Government of Wajir in conjunction with Nomadic Link Kenya, an NGO formed by a group of youths from Northern Kenya.
The day-long activity attracted other high-profile personalities such as Jamila Mohamed of NTV, Fatuma Saman, a commissioner with IPOA, Yassin Juma, a renowned journalist and blogger and many successful young men and women from Northern Kenya.
In a single day, we talked and mingled with hundreds of young scholars hungry for knowledge.What caught my attention mostly was the difference in approach between the girls and boys on how to address the myriad of challenges.
Unlike the boys of my generation, the lads in the room were timid, indifferent and at times, looked lost in the swirl of things. It looked as if the initiative to get things done had been snatched away from them.
And you could guess why. North Eastern Kenya has seen one of the most violent periods in the recent past.
Thanks to persistent attacks by suspected Al Shabaab militants. One of the ways devised by local security administrators to beat back the tide of terrorism was the occasional rounding up of young men by security agencies.
Perhaps the timidity of these young men in front of authority is a consequence of that. I may be wrong. I leave it to the sociologists to find that out.
Or it could be that the Age of Women is catching up in the most remote of the country; and so many of the girls looked determined and resilient despite the present circumstances. First, the unforgiving temperatures make learning a battle of the will.
And even in the face of a biting shortage of teachers and lack of adequate school facilities, the girls were determined to soldier on.
When I asked them what career path they wished to pursue, most of the girls surprisingly said they wanted to be doctors, specifically surgeons and engineers, even politicians.
Previously, these were professions thought to be the preserve of men. Forget about the fact most these professions demand hard work, perseverance and many years in the university, most girls responded by saying they are ready to get the requisite grades at their KCSE examination and join the university and then serve their country.
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Oh my goodness, the girls; they were full of determination to overcome what obstacles life had placed on their way including being born into a harsh environment that makes living a huge challenge.
In contrast, the girls rarely mentioned the lack of basic essentials like food and water and clothes or the lack of school fees, the shortage of teachers, as obstacles to pursuing their dream careers.
They hungrily sought details about beneficial careers. I reckon they have realised that the era of depending on men as the sole providers for the family is long gone. In them, I saw a spirit of determination to change their fortunes and consequently that of their communities.
And apparently, it was not all down to the girls alone. Local leaders played a role in assaulting age-old prejudices against girls and women in this region.
An area where nearly half the girls above 25 years old got entrapped in early marriages, underwent FGM or stayed away from the classroom.
A special mention goes to Ms. Maryam Hassan, the Principal of Wajir Girls Secondary School who demonstrated how the performance of her students has improved considerably over the last few years.
This is despite the flight by non-local staff in the wake of the attacks by Al Shabaab.
With fewer teachers in the classrooms, she had to do the heavy-lifting, leading and encouraging her students and staff to give their best despite the circumstances. The efforts are bearing fruit with remarkable results in last year’s KCSE exams.
The county government has also invested in education by allocating bursaries mainly to girls to encourage them to stay in schools and avoid early marriages.
Local administrators know that the best gift anyone can give a child is education. What can one say about giving that gift to a group of girls eager to push the limits and be the best in life?
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