Kenya’s President Kibaki and the Unraveling of a Legacy
Kenya's president mwai kibaki
By Patrick Idwasi PhD | Oklahoma
Reading the Daily Nation end of year article (Good Economist, Bad politician by Murithi Mutiga, December 27th 2009) about Kibaki and his apparent success on the economy and failure in politics, it is not difficult to see that the author and the paper are both not objective arbiters of Kibaki presidency. Rather they look as people who are positioning themselves to shape his legacy in the most favorable way possible. Support of politician by larger media house is nothing new in Kenya or other parts of the world, but it often leads to perceptions of a hidden agenda. Is the Daily Nation article an honest analysis of the Kibaki administration? That is something that everyone has to make their mind about, but some of the facts might have a different story.
The article correctly points out about roaring success of the Free Primary Education programme in as far as the student enrollment. But as the saying goes “kazi sio kuzaa mtoto; bali ni kumlea” (giving birth to a child is not big issue, the real work is bringing the up child). The programme has been hobbled from get go and this problems have been allowed to manifest and the results are being seen in the exam results that we are seeing now.
Private schools offering scholarships
There were stories and pictures of classes that were bursting to the seams with many students. It does not take a genius to figure out that the quality of teaching will go down. Teachers, however dedicated, will not be able to give a good education to students. This leads to poor performance by public schools and thus the lack of top performing students from these schools in the national list for best students. With his “hands off” approach, Kiabaki has his lieutenant, Prof. Ongeri, the education minister threatening private schools for “luring” good students from public schools by offering them scholarships, then “abandoning” them after they score grade “A”s in the private schools. So a poor but gifted student is offered a chance to maximize his or her potential in a private school for free and the minister thinks that this is something wrong?
Unfortunately the good professor’s approach in the legacy of Kibaki administration; instead of learning from people who are doing better the first line of thinking is “how dare you make us look bad” and then you try to bring them down. The private institutions are owned and run mostly by Kenyans; the teachers are Kenyans and the students are also Kenyans why doesn’t the government try to steal a page from their playbook and see how they can learn from them?
Lack of foresight and proper planning
The second sign of lack of preparation is also seen after the results of the KCPE results; over 250,000 students will not join secondary school due to lack of space. This is not a new problem but one which would definitely be exacerbated by the additional students that the FPE has introduce. Nothing was done to stop this behemoth of a problem from coming to fruition. Some foresight would have been used to solve this problem instead of basking in the glory of its implementation.
The missing funds from FPE is another direct results of President Kibaki’s hands off approach. With such large sums of money there is always the danger that some mis-appropriations is inevitable. So far the President has addressed this issue only once in a statement form, where one would argue the recent suspensions of corrupt government officer was a response to the Prime Minister’s (PM) actions. It seems that the British, who are providing the funds, are more interested than the President in addressing this issue. This is a major issue because the FPE has been critical in getting children especially from poor backgrounds to get an education and it’s continuation is very vital to them. One would look cynically at the president and his ilk and state that it does bother them much because their children and grandchildren have never seen the inside of a public school. The issues that pertain to this corruption charges have very string implications for the ordinary mwananchi and it behooves the president to handle the issue with the seriousness that the people think it deserves. Today it seems that the president is reluctant to punish those who have abused their office for financial gain.
Never sent a student to university
Although the issues above are weighty and important the biggest failure is not as tangible or as easily measured; yet it is the most overwhelming. When we see headlines such like “Many district schools have never sent a student to university” (East African Standard Published on January 13th 2010) and “Why good results are alien to NEP” (East African Standard published on January 8th 2010) you know that people are losing hope. When you have students not bothering to apply to go to our universities because they know the cards they have been dealt and they feel they have no hope that is a sad testament.
When Kibaki was been sworn in at Uhuru park in 2003 the throngs were not cheering Kibaki, but hope of a brighter future. Take away that hope and you leave a populace that is disillusioned and that is a recipe for disaster. Education, for most people who do not have major inheritance to fall back on, has been the ladders that have been used to scale from poverty. If students do not have any hope of getting those ladders what will they cheer about, what will they look forward to?
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