We have normalised humiliation of children with a begging bowl

A child holds a plate. [GettyImages]

This week Kenyan media published a harrowing story with the headline “Chief Clears Orphans To Beg For School Fees.” The chief's sign and blessing of such humiliation is not charity, it is abdication.

This single act, replicated in villages and towns, reveals a nation that has allowed its systems to fail, its promises to erode, and its most vulnerable to be paraded as proof of benevolence rather than rescued by law and policy. When President Kibaki reintroduced free primary education in January 2003, the capitation grant was Sh1,420 per pupil, a concrete promise.