By Terewa Buhere

It was on this day, six years ago, that a dark cloud of grief engulfed Starehe Boys’ Centre. Kenya had lost one of its finest premier educators - Dr Geoffrey William Griffin.

The story of philanthropy in Kenya would not be complete without mentioning Griffin. As the founder and director of Starehe, Griffin brought hope to the hopeless by empowering bright boys from poor backgrounds with an education and skills of life. He sourced sponsorships from home and abroad to feed, clothe and educate them.

Today, Starehe is not just a school; it is a family whose members are bonded by shared experiences, values and traditions. Starehe was born of an idea conceived way back in 1959. Griffin started off with 17 orphans in two tin huts — a humble beginning of what was to become one of the best schools in Africa, posting excellent results and a competitive extra-curricular programme.

Griffin lived to his philosophy of ‘Education of the whole person’. Unlike many schools that emphasise academic theories, concepts and abstractions, Starehe teaches requisite values of honesty, self-discipline, hard work and self reliance. This values-based approach to education helps the Starehe graduate to interact consciously with the world around him. These values and traditions uniquely distinguish Starehe from ‘academic factories’ that specialise in churning out ‘paper graduates’ whose significance to society is almost indiscernible.

Perhaps the most outstanding facet of Starehe is the voluntary service scheme where students spend three weeks of their vacation in community service working in hospitals, rural schools and Government offices, among other places. They do this in the spirit of giving back to society to show gratitude for the generosity accorded to them by Starehe. Volunteers do not accept payment or any form of compensation for the service but are always ready and willing to perform any task — no matter how menial or tedious — to the best of their abilities.

Moral poverty

Society’s obsession with academic credentials with little regard to character-building breeds moral poverty where vices of corruption and tribalism thrive. It is indisputable that Kenyans are among the most educated in Africa yet our education did little to prevent the barbarity witnessed in the 2007/8 post-election chaos. In fact, a section of our academia did fan the violence as evidenced by the hate e-mails circulated in the period before and after the hotly contested presidential results.

This highlights the failure of our education system to inculcate a sense of moral responsibility among our people. From this observation, we can infer that society does not just need an education, but education of a particular kind.

Now that the Constitution has raised the integrity threshold for public officers, it is time to review our education system to be in tune with the new laws. Griffin had already modelled such a curriculum in his book "School Mastery". He had envisaged a society led by people of high moral standing. Integrity is about morals and ethics, not degrees and diplomas. We can appreciate this fact from the on-going vetting of public office holders.

Our preoccupation with grades is our major undoing. We need to change this peculiar attitude and embrace a values-based education system. This is easy to implement because it is not a new subject to be introduced in the existing curriculum; it is a philosophy; an approach to teaching and leaning which promotes an inclusive school ethos.

A staunch Christian, Griffin always consulted the Holy Bible for spiritual nourishment. Nonetheless, he guided each student in deepening his own relationship with his creator, whatever faith the student professed. For this, a beautiful mosque and a magnificent chapel stand on Starehe grounds.

A caption above his office door read, "Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true". Inscribed on the Assembly Hall entrance was the message: "From those to whom much has been given, much will be required." Through such powerful statements, Griffin communicated his deep-seated beliefs and convictions to the Starehe community.

Griffin’s gave his boys an opportunity to rise to the zenith of their potential.

We do not mourn Griffin — he is immortal in the lives of those who passed through his able hands.

—The author is an alumnus of Starehe Boys Centre.