When schools burn, it's the rot in government that stinks

I’ve been a great fan of literature since my high school days, or maybe since my childhood. Having been brought up by a father who mostly used proverbs in teaching his children, I must have benefited by developing genuine interest in always trying to find sense in every plain word uttered by anybody.

Symbolism; Ngugi wa Thiongo can help you understand that when a society is going through a unique scenario as witnessed in the burning of schools by the students or whoever it is that helps in the burning, there must be something larger than large behind the scenes. The burning of schools is just but an expression of dissatisfaction. Let me break it down to you in a language you can understand best since many of us don’t face facts as they should; CS Matiangi is appointed to a ministry that has been known to deep-rooted rot, deeper than tap root itself. No one can easily forget that this is the same ministry where Sam Ongeri, former minister for education is alleged to have squandered the ministry’s funds leading to his suspension by The Former Prime minister Raila Odinga in 2010.

Over the years, the whole country has often joined in celebrations to celebrate great grades achieved by students in specific schools. The education ministry and our National examinations went down when Kenyans, parents and students started believing in Magic grades. When you believe in magic, you must expect magical results. You know, magic is like comedy, it’s sweet and addictive, especially if you’ve come to like a specific magician or comedian. I tell you, cheating is sweet as long as you don’t get caught! Now getting caught before you even cheat is torturing.

In a country where the government focuses more on pleasing some small kids learning in mud classrooms or under a tree with laptops, one can’t expect teachers working their bosoms out to sit easy with a peanut salary as the government dishes out overvalued laptops to kids. There can never be sanity in schools, actually as far as I know there have never been any since the government began disregarding teachers, interfering with their unions and salaries. Teachers are opinion shapers, both in kids and community-wise. If you’ve ever gone deep into the history of Kenya, more so the KANU regime history, University lecturers were the worst enemies of state because of their open-mindedness and the good actual values and spirit of fighting that they instilled in their students in a country where the only fight you could have with the government is the fight for your life.

When the country is rotten from social ills such as corruption, Tribalism, nepotism in public appointments, arrogance from elected national leaders, the frustration gained from the same is transmitted to the students who are lectured and made to understand why such ills exist. So when the students strike and burn their dormitories and some say they are simply borrowing a leaf from the CORD protests, I can’t say it’s a lie, because anyway how do you protest against injustice? By singing The National Anthem? The unrest in schools is a cocktail of the government’s ignorance of the teachers’ plight, corruption and rot in the whole Kenyan education system ( including complicated examinations that teachers themselves have to research on widely before attempting revision), use of outdated rules in schools, government’s reluctance to adopt technology in reality by simply allowing the students to own phones in schools ( I’ll address this in another article), overload of teachers by the government’s failure to employ adequate teachers, underpayment of teachers and school workers despite a much hyped ‘economy growth’ propaganda by the government.... The list is endless.

Bottom line, the unrest in schools is just a representation of how exhausted the society is with propaganda and ills they have been subjected to. If the issues of social injustices against Kenyans cannot be addressed by this government, the CS Fred Matiangi can as well cool his heels and let the schools burn in peace. The president of the Republic instead of warning the young fellas on Television which they do not even watch, should begin by retracing the statements he made in 2015 on the teachers' salaries before he can even think of pointing accusing fingers.

No head teacher or principal is insane enough to mobilize his students to torch the school he/she heads unless the reasons behind that are insane enough to guarantee the same. I also do believe that even for a government to carry out a terrorist attack against itself, there must be a very compelling reason for that. My advice; sort out teachers, sort out this rotten government and set the students free.