I joined Standard One the day Kibaki started Free Primary Education programme

Former President Mwai Kibaki spoke at St Pauls High School Kevote when the school celebrated its Golden Jubilee. [George Mulala, Standard]

If someone told me that I would be covering the final journey of Kenya’s third president and the first non-Kanu Head of State, I would not have taken them seriously.

Those we shared childhood days with can agree that it took us time to stop calling him ‘Moi’ Kibaki. To us, any president was a ‘Moi’.

But here we are, 19 years and three months since I joined primary school in 2003, just when the late President Mwai Kibaki took over from Daniel Moi.

The FPE programme was the first campaign promise to be implemented immediately the new government took over.

During the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) campaigns in 2002, access to education for all through FPE dominated the speeches.

This was because Kenyans were used to paying school and development fees and buying school uniforms and learning materials. Some parents and guardians could not afford those.

Faint memory

At the beginning of the 21st century, I was barely five years old, so my memory is a bit rusty.

According to my mother, on December 27, 2002, Kenyans went to the polls and by the time the New Year (2003) was being ushered in, the new president was in office. Indeed, they were ready for a new dawn.

From my faint memories, I remember as soon as schools opened in January 2003, children of school-going age were encouraged to enroll. After all, the incoming government had promised free primary education.

“Wazazi, tafadhali wapeleke watoto shuleni hata kama hawana karo, mengine tutayatengeneza wakiwa shuleni (Parents please take your children to school even if you do not have fees we shall address other issues once they are in school),” Kibaki said as he urged parents to embrace the FPE.

One of my editors tells me that Kibaki came to power when Kenya’s economy was at its worst; most people were unemployed, tax collection was low and in some areas, children went to school without uniforms.

If it were not for the FPE, I doubt I would have attended school. The State scraped school fees in all public schools.

Through the programme, my mother’s burden was lifted. All she needed was just a little money for school fees and maybe an exercise book for homework then her daughter was ready for school.

When I first set foot in St Mary’s Girls Primary School in Nakuru county, I got text books, and 12 exercise books, two pencils, an eraser or a sharpener.

Little did we know that every good thing has a challenge. Our classrooms became crowded. We had to share textbooks among three, four sometimes five pupils. It all depended on where your school was -- in the village, deep in the slums or in an urban area.

All in all, the government did its best to give my generation access to free education.

I remember presenting a song to Kibaki (praising his FPE achievement) during the 2006 National Music Festivals held at Lions Club of Nakuru.

Right from when I set foot in Standard One, I never bought a text book. We would get them in school and if you lost a school book then you had to pay double. It was just a way of making us responsible.

For a long time, we were equal in school until teachers started demanding Sh200 for remedial classes.

It was a private arrangement that later became popular and the fee went as high as Sh1,000 per month in some schools.

If you ask me, this is where the over emphasis on curricular activities started. This is where we were introduced to holiday tuition and purchase of unnecessary revision books.

Although it was free primary education, it was not really free.

The gap between the able ones and us, the sons and daughters of peasants was still very clear.

Even as the nation prepares to lay its third president to rest on Saturday, my generation celebrates his achievements, he gave us the opportunity to learn and make something good out of our lives.

Rest in peace to my generation’s ‘Moi’ Kibaki.