Rioting Kenyan Schools. Blame the system?

A few years back a pal of mine was proud to say that he was a former student of upper hill high school. Upperhillians, he said were students who let their hair grow a little too long, and preferred non-physical sports like soccer and basketball to rugby. That was back when upper hill was a day school. Now upper hill is known for sodomy and pyromaniacs. Now he hangs his head in shame whenever the school is mentioned.

Over 200 kenyan schools have gone on strike in the last month. The studnets who initially refused to sit for mock exams did so because they found out that the examinations council had been using the mock grade as the final grade for students who they suspected of cheating. Some students who had planned on cheating then resolve dthe best way was to avoid sitting for mock exams. But now what began as a few students refusing to sit for mock exams has now become a full scale protest against the education system.

450,000 students sit for class 8 exams yet only 15,000 get into affordable universities after high school. 99.97% of students who enrolled in primary school will not get a degree and the chance of a better life. As a result parents and teachers will do anything to push thier kids to success. Beatings, holiday tuition, deprving them of a fun childhood.

We need more state universities. We need private universities to offer full scholarships to bright students so that they become recognisable. We need the pressure to pass with exceptional grades to reduce. We want students who read to learn, not students who are drilled for exams.

How can we make our country proud again?

Like the vast majority of Kenyans, last week i was still standing by a hardline stance. By the end of last week there were two opinions on what should happen depending on what side you were on. Kibaki should resign because he stole votes openly or Raila should stop violence let kibaki have his 5 years and co-operate with the govt.

I fell on the side calling for kibaki's resignation. Now i just want peace. The country to return to some state of normallcy. Would it come if kibaki resigned or Raila backed down? At this point i think not completely. Things have gone a bit too far. Were Kibaki to resign now the PNU supporters would feel things were taken away from them by violence. And now that there man is gone, thier businesses will be targetted openly. they would start forming thier own groups to stike back where they can. Were Raila to submit to kibaki being president, i feel the current violence would continue.

The solution? First something must be done about the election results. Nobody recognises them and that includes the international community and maybe Kalonzo. A re-election. Perhaps after an acceptable timeframe. But even this is not enough. Both ODM and PNU must work together to repair this country.

One cannot govern this country without the other. they must together form a govt to bring kenyans together and investigate the injustices. There is more to this than meets the eye. Then once that is done let us go fight each other with voter cards again.

Kenya Today

Today i called a friend in eldoret town. The story that he told me chilled me. He said eldoret town was a mess. Burnt cars, large rocks all over the place and bodies lying about that have not yet been taken to the mortuary. He says he does not know how he will get back to his job in the capital city of Nairobi.

People are angry, thier votes have no power to change things and they have resorted to violence. The govt has tried to put down the violence but clearly they dont have the goodwill of the people. The opposition who might have the power to, have simply decided not to try and stop them. Rather they are channeling the same anger towards more organised protests. A step above letting the people vent thier anger against thier neighbours.

In Nairobi things are a bit different. The people here want peace more than anything. Shops are opening up and to the causual observer it may seem that things are returning to normal. Not so, talk to any person and they are worried about what will happen to this country. People turn up in offices but are unable to work. They think obout thier relations stuck upcountry and about the economy. People do not trust one another as much as before. The social fabric of this country is being threatened. After the business is booming and the people can stay out after dark, then the real hard part begins. The healing process. Some wounds take long to heal and scars may remain.

How did this happen? Simple. The people were denied thier power to vote.

Back to work in Kenya

Well today i decided to go to the office. Life must go on right? I left the house optimistic that peace would return. Reaching the Nairobi Central Business District at about 8.00am i found cops surrounding the city center. This scared me. Things were not abut to return to normal anytime soon. I felt angry and cursed Kibaki for the upteenth time today for openly rigging the election. Dude you were caught, give it up.

As someone put it quite nicely. Imagine a thief steals something from you and is caught red handed by the public. First he denies taking yur stuff (when all can see him holding it) and then tells you , "Well it is in my possesion now so you have to go to court to prove i took it."

The next day he says, "Hey ok i took it, but lets negotiate, i want to keep half of the stuff cause you are a thief also!"

Mr Maybe Re-elected President, Take a stand. Call for independent votes recount and condemn ECK. We want peace. Pretend like you had no clue what was going on. Half of us believe that anyway. When the results come in lose gracefully.