We have come from far, we should not stop or look back

The promise by both Jubilee and the National Super Alliance (NASA) to make secondary school education free must be made a reality. There is so much money wasted in Kenya due to graft and uncollected taxes that can be utilised for that purpose.

Free secondary education should not be negotiable and it should not be the usual hot air promises that we are used to in Kenya. Looking back since 2002 we had some success initially with free primary education. This is one thing you cannot take away from retired President Kibaki.

The other thing is that he revived a dying economy. He inherited a big mess from the Kanu regime. He also set the stage for local entrepreneurs to prosper and started the look East policy which has seen the country actively engage with China.

Then came Jubilee. The past four years of Jubilee has seen two possible success stories: the standard gauge railway and the taming of rogue and greedy banks by capping interest rates.

Some economists argue that the caps were ill informed. But the mess the banks have wrought through usury and shylock behaviour is far bigger than any good they have done.Now we want.

Now we want free secondary education from whoever wins the elections.The leaders should also make sure that primary education is actually free - as things stand now, it is not entirely so. Levies have come back and the corruption in Kenya has made the programme to almost fail.

Educating people alone is not enough. We need jobs. Many who are leaving school or getting retrenched are wasting away. Gambling has become the new economic activity for the many unemployed youths, one that will be our ruin.