This is the season of sorrow on campuses

By Edwin Makiche

The festive season is here again and town dwellers are planning to spend their holiday upcountry while lovebirds think of the best gift for their loved ones.

For some people, however, the season heralds a time of sorrow.

It is that time of year when the two enemies of university student strike — examinations and impecuniousness.

Students at Kenyatta, JKUAT, Egerton, Maseno and Moi universities are sitting for their semester examinations.

Though the core mission that took these men and women to these institutions was to further education, this often rates low on their list of priorities.

Reading is deferred to the two weeks prior to examinations when a student realises that he does not even remember the code for the course he is taking.

This is when you will find them holed up in libraries and lecture halls with piles of books and files like lawyers.

Loud music and midnight chanting are unheard of, and lovebirds have bid each other temporary goodbye as they try to salvage the situation.

A visitor to the institution would marvel at the students’ devotion to their studies.

Good days

It is also the period when one meets strange faces in the library corridor. Students who had spent the better part of the semester in pubs or with their lovers realise that they need to read.

Remedial group discussions are initiated and it comes as no surprise that three quarters of the group members hardly have an idea about the course.

At such times, the more affluent of the students hire their colleagues to write up notes or assignments for them.

A certain student charges Sh700 for a term paper and Sh300 for a take away assignment. On good days he pockets over Sh3,000 a week.

But perhaps the most ridiculous moment of the season is during the examination itself. Overwhelmed by the pile of notes and lacking time to prepare, some compress the notes into small pieces of paper famously referred to as ‘Mwakenyas’ or ‘Mwaks’ in short. These materials are then sneaked into the examination hall.

Professional users of ‘Mwakenyas’ know where to hide their illegal material and when to fish it out. They monitor the invigilator’s every step and from their composure, one cannot suspect them. But for Mwakenya first timers, the tension with which this illicit material comes is disabling.

The mind goes blank as he or she waits for the invigilator to look in the other direction. But usually this never seems to happen and they end up submitting incomplete answers.

Chewing furiously

Most universities have strict rules against cheating and can lead to suspension or even discontinuation. And, therefore, a student would do anything to ensure the material is not discovered.

In one incident a comrade was caught red-handed and he stuffed the Mwakenyas into his mouth and began chewing furiously.

The invigilator held his throat tightly to stop the material from going down but he swallowed it all the same. In another incident, a cheating student physically assaulted the lecturer, retrieved the material and ran away with it.