What the stone democrats of Moi University teach about education

ELDORET: Moi University has been closed indefinitely following riots that pitted students from different communities.

There was an apparent attempt to distribute the available positions among students from different communities – these are very sensitive students who care about inclusion – and things were going very well until somebody changed their mind and decided to run for another post that had been reserved for a student from another community.

I am moved by the example offered by Moi University.

The students have dramatically illustrated the point that few Kenyans hardly appreciate: that education does not refine individuals.

If one is rugged or crooked, there is no need to waste money by investing in education because no amount of knowledge can transform the uncouth elements from our mind-set.

The other powerful lesson from Moi University is that ethnicity is here to stay.

No amount of pontification will remove that from our national psyche, and the students have done well to respond actively by putting tribe first.

This is useful on two counts: it removes any pretensions that the students are any different from the illiterate villagers who never set foot in class, which is a useful lesson given our heavy investments in legal frameworks that insist on formal education as a consideration for elective posts.

But the enduring lesson from Moi University example is that the so-called future leaders are ready and willing to take up leadership roles.

And they are so hungry for power, they are armed with rocks and rungus and other crude weapons, working up the crowds with chants of tribe.

I suspect many parents are as relieved to learn there is no point in returning the stone democrats back to class if all they stand to gain is more investment in tribal chauvinism.

They can acquire that without ever leaving their villages, and save their parents small fortunes.