Children of a lesser god?

By Joe Ombour

Education has become a mirage for thousands of pupils as drought and famine sweep across the country.

In North Eastern Province, where pasture for livestock and water sources has virtually disappeared, poor parents are unable to retain their children in boarding schools in vogue there because of the people’s lifestyle.

The parents cannot afford boarding fees charged on top of Government free schooling funds.

Mr Dubat Ali Amey, chairman of Pastoral Community Elders Forum says free primary education has flopped because of the absence of an endowment fund to cushion parents during hard times.

He recommends that boarding schools in the region be made free.

" Day schools are not tenable here, because we move from place to place in search of pasture and water, yet free schooling funds only cover expenses in day schools. It was implemented without pastoral communities in mind," he complains.

Amey is grateful that school feeding programmes in the region have continued uninterrupted, although the food — maize and beans — is not popular.

"The real problem is the high boarding school fees at a time when our animals are dying and we are starving," says Amey.

The fees conundrum has hit girls particularly hard, as parents with little money to spare prefer to spend it on the boys. "Our people consider it a waste of resources to educate girls as they believe they benefit other families when they get married. Drought and famine only make the plight of girls worse," he says.

School-feeding

Across the River Tana in Eastern and Coast provinces, school-feeding programmes have ceased to exist, forcing many pupils out of school.

In Kati District, the Education Officer in-charge of primary schools Peter Maundu says about 40 per cent of pupils are out of school at the moment, courtesy of famine. "Worst affected are Endau, Mwitika, Mutitu, Zombe and parts of Yatta on the eastern end of the district where 90 per cent of school pupils need urgent food assistance to continue with their studies," he says.

The region with 157 primary schools benefited from a World Food Programme (WFP) funded feeding project from 2005 until last December. It was to be replaced with a homegrown alternative that is yet to be implemented.

"It is a pity that pupils in these areas have taken to hunting dick-dick, in the seared jungles, for food after exhausting wild fruits and edible roots," says Maundu.

Children who should be in school roam the market centres and towns looking for casual jobs to earn money with which to buy food for themselves and their starving siblings. "You can imagine what is happening to the girls. The situation is critical," he says.

Pity

In Mwingi District, the education officer in-charge of primary programs Aron Kyalo says pupils looking for food have flooded Mwingi town and other commercial centres. "It is a pity that the WFP suspended operations in traditionally food deficient locations of Mui, Nguni and Nuu. We are lost for what to do as the famine relief from the Government cannot sustain an average family even for a day," he says.

"Where is free primary education in this famine?" asks Kyalo. He appeals to the Government to step in and salvage the situation before teachers are left with only desks to teach.

He says over 74,000 pupils in the district are affected and fears that education standards could plummet to irredeemable levels if quick action is not taken to feed the pupils.

Coastal areas and the precincts of Lake Victoria are not spared the raging famine, pupils have abandoned classrooms for fishing.

"Parents cannot stop their children from trying to make money if they are sleeping on empty stomachs,’ says an education official in Suba District.

He says girls driven from home by famine frequent the beaches around the lake to make money pawning their bodies. "What this means is that they are not only losing out on education, but courting disaster in the form of HIV and risking unwanted pregnancies," says the official.

"Many of the boys and girls drop out of school altogether if nothing is done to arrest the situation," he warns.

It is the same scenario in the larger Kilifi and Kwale districts where hungry school pupils are headed for the sea and the beaches "for purposes of survival". As school populations dwindle in the wake of a devastating famine and lack of a school feeding program, the number of young people flocking into Mombasa, Malindi and other Coastal towns is alarming.