By stopping our kids from hustling, we're hurting the country

By stopping our kids from hustling when young, we only hurt ourselves

It is unbelievable that parents nowadays fear holidays. Our parents loved it - they got cheap labour on the farm. After three months of doing all the back-breaking work while we were away at school, our parents knew it was their time to rest.

There was someone to milk the cows, take the milk to the dairy, plant crops, and weed or harvest them. If you ever thought to complain, our parents had a quick answer: “That’s where your fees comes from.”

Years later, we realised we’d sponsored ourselves through school! 

Lots of urbanites wonder why ‘ruralites’ seem to excel in the city. It has a lot to do with hustling when young. Unfortunately, that spirit of enterprise has been killed by land shortages and social media. In the rural areas these days, there are no large tracts of land to keep youngsters, including students, busy. 

Thanks to population growth and land sub-division, the youth have drifted to a new past time: social media. We could add other less economically productive activities, like sex and drug abuse. Idleness is a threat to any economy. 

Youngsters in the West, on the other hand, are busy working in places like fast-food restaurants flipping burgers, which keeps them busy and occupied.

There are no similar economic activities in rural or urban areas of Kenya. 

With so much idleness, no wonder parents fear the holidays. Does the Teachers Service Commission know that’s why tuition is so popular?

The food budget is another fear for parents. County governments have not helped either, and the development of sports activities has lagged. Sports keep the young busy. Suppose we had an English Premier League or US Super Bowl equivalent? That would keep our minds and bodies busy. No one would fear holidays. 

The idleness

Our generation hated school holidays because we worked; the current generation loves holidays because it’s time to idle around.

The idleness at home spills over to school where children don’t want to do any school work.

The Ministry of Education is not making matters any better by warning teachers not to give students homework. No wonder after school young people want jobs without work.

That’s how we plant the seeds of economic stagnation. The evidence is there for all to see. The country’s GDP growth rate would be higher if more people worked. One wishes more Kenyans exceeded the call of duty like the missionaries who once run our schools. Even corruption is about money without work.

The few who work hard can’t go far; they’re dragged down by the many who never work. 

Can we reverse things?

Yes, if we stopped seeing work as evil. That starts right from school assignments to chores at home. By the time you transition into the world of work, work will have got into your DNA. You’ll enjoy it and help move the reluctant wheel of economic progress. After all, the country we all admire, the US, was build on the Protestant work ethic; the belief that work is godly. We can’t be an exception.