Let’s remember that not everything from the West is superior

By Kenfrey Kiberenge

One day earlier this year, I boarded a matatu at the Donholm stage in Nairobi. Unsurprisingly, an argument broke out between a young lady and the matatu conductor over bus fare.

The lady was scolding the conductor in English and not to be outdone, the latter replied in the same language. He, however, hit a snag after mumbling two or three words.

The driver of the matatu intervened and calmed him down but the conductor had a parting shot: “Ala, kwani nilisoma kingereza ya kuweka kwa mfuko (did I learn English that I’ll not use)?”

That was my most enjoyable bus ride in Nairobi which, though, I believe it’s second to one of my friend’s incident where a smartly dressed lady confidently told him to open a window “tusifornicate (so that we don’t fornicate – read suffocate!)”. You do not want to guess the laughter that followed these two episodes.

I use these two anecdotes to illustrate the little substance behind the not-so-popular joke in Kenya that some Nairobians are “more British than Britons”?

If you need more proof, here it is: Nairobi has been hit by a craze for British dressing-slim fit suits and shirts with matching slim ties. Tuxedos are today also common in weddings.

And in case you haven’t noticed, the number of people conversing in heavily accented English is increasing by the day, in a city where virtually everybody is “doing coffee” in the evening.

Besides, we are living in a country where vestigial of the British colonial era such as driving on the left and the shilling still pervade and over the years continued to ‘import’ habit after habit from Britain.
Despite a national launch, the search for a Kenyan dress has been elusive as leaders’ prefer designer suits and ties.

And like Britain, we now have a Prime Minister with a PM’s Questions (PMQs) segment every Wednesday in Parliament and after the next General Election we will have two Houses, albeit modelled alongside those in America.

I also believe the proposal to replace the 8-4-4 system, otherwise referred to as the 0-levels, with the British-like A-levels is nearing conclusion.
But here in the UK, the reverse is happening: last week, Education Secretary Michael Gove touched off a storm after proposing that the country returns to 0-levels.

The initial plan was to have slower pupils sit easier exams and a range of tough new qualifications designed to “stretch pupils further, particularly in the subjects of English, maths and science”.

In fact, Britain is now citing Singapore’s education system as the best example to be copied. This reminds of a remark made by Equity Bank Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi faulting the popular cliché that at independence, Kenya and Singapore were at par economically.

Dr Mwangi argued that this is a half-truth since people we are not told that the two countries were not at par in educationally, and therein lay the difference.

Just to bring you up to speed with the Singaporean education, 60 per cent of learners are in “express” academic classes; 25 per cent in “normal academic” classes and 15 per cent attend “technical” classes.
Only the “express” students sit academic O-levels after four years, while the rest sit less demanding N-levels, although “normal academic” students may undertake O-levels later.

Although I am aware the pending shift from 0-levels to A-levels is more than just a change in name, it beats logic why we should be adopting a concept that other people want to run away from.

Before we decide what habit to pick next, it is high time we understood that not everything from the West is superior. Remember in London, it is not illegal to smoke in the streets and people use their conscience to decide what time of the day to start drinking alcohol, although some bars close at 11pm.

The writer works for The Standard and is winner of the David Astor Journalism Award 2012. He is on a fellowship programme with ‘The Independent’ in London, UK