It is not a matter of desperation or self pity but we just have one country where we are all deaf and we have never learnt to be proactive. I want to believe our reactive nature is part of our African genetic disposition.

The issue of school unrest is a matter we debated exhaustively in 2000 – – 2003 and even proposed solutions as independent stakeholders. I do remember there was also a commission to that effect. Read your back issues of the Education Watch and Education Insight magazines where we espoused all the “disregarded wisdom’ at our disposal concerning school unrest.

We need not walk that route again and will not use this opportunity to espouse our “cheap wisdom’ that will not be heeded anyway. Because even if we do, the school unrests will not go away and our advice will not be taken seriously. Who doesn’t know that? This is Kenya where wisdom is only for those who know what they know and live in big cities.

And as we remain adamant, complacent and take on a fire fighting attitude, we shall continue to loose our young people and property in senseless infernos.

The whole thing about school unrest is to do with the national psyche and nation’s emotional temperature – – a simmering heat underneath. A hurting society.

We saw the simmering during the agitation for multi-party democracy. The young people usually bring out our hidden anger that as the older members of the society we only grumble about but do nothing about. In our grumbling, we do this within the hearing and precincts of our young people and trust me, with their energy and bronco energy, they will not take it “maturely’ just grumble and leave it there, they will do something about it.
Thank God for the energy of youth.

Just like most of the school unrest was in the parts of Eastern, Coast, Western and Nyanza during the first wave late 90’s and early 2000; this time round the wave of unrest is in Central province. Reason, there is an unresolved political issue there. There is a simmering of emotions there and the temperature is rising.

Second, since the Central province is where the President comes from, there is undue academic pressure brought to bear on the students top perform and even over-perform. This in itself is stressful and leads to emotional imbalance. Image is everything but image hurts sometimes.

And then guess what, our leaders and academics are advocating for official sanctioning of corporal punishment as if corporal punishment is a panacea. I pity them. For one, corporal punishment never went away; it has always been with us. It is just that it is officially not permissible and by the way we do things in this country, what is permissible or not depends on “circumstances’. So, corporal punishment is very much alive and we continue to get serious injuries and even deaths as a result of this inhuman and archaic approach to managing student behaviour.

A lesson for the Central province which is being hit hardest at this point in time; when you oath young people and ready them for civil war – – and by good or bad luck there is no war; you must be ready to carry the weight of the repercussions. That force or energy wil have to be spent somewhat. There is a price. These young men will torch schools, refuse to go back to school and your neighborhoods will never be safe again. SIMPLE.

Next time, before you are carried away by passion, think and think straight.

If The Right Honourable Prime Minister Raila Odinga aka Tinga was to go according to his heart, act in a rash and prematurely arm the youth in Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza who were crying out for guns, imagine where we would be today. Arming these young men with state of the art AK 47’s was not difficult. The money was available and the supply plentiful. Challenge is, how do you rein in young men armed with AK 47’s ? Control mechanisms n must be in lace first. Such armed youth actually become a law unto themselves. They are not a disciplined force to take orders from their superiors. and that is the route Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and DR Congo took; they are still paying the price today.

And this is one point our friends in Mt.Kenya do not want to see. They suppose they can intimidate the rest of the country with thousands of armed youth with unkempt hair and red eyes. (You heard of the two containers of arms that disappeared from Mombasa port. Some of these arms are around Kimilili area from what we know. Oh Pleeeaaase! This is politics my dear brothers and sisters and the rules of the game changed in 1963.

There are times to follow your head and not your heart, especially in such sensitive matters involving security, young people and national interests.

I challenge the leaders of Central Kenya to rise up to the challenge and stem this monster that is going to eat them alive in broad daylight as the rest of the country watches the spectacle. “Pole sana’ is all we will be able to say and do. A monster they bred and nurtured by oathing these young men in readiness to fight. Fight whom? And true to the situation, the monster shall remain confined right within their own kraal. It is not a national problem but a local one so contained it shall remain.

The Minister of Education is giving it an academic solution which will not go far. He only has half the story.

This is an issue for Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Motivational Speakers, the Church and Politicians. If not, then trust me, we haven’t seen the last or the worst of this just yet. 2012 is coming.

Central leaders, search your souls. You already suffer the worst insecurity in this country and here you are creating yet another catastrophe with your own hands. Just stop this thing and work at undoing the mess NOW. There is no war you are preparing these young men for, Kenyans are not interested. And you couldn’t win even if you dared. Be realistic. And there is no way you can mobilize militias to conquer land in Kenya. Just wake up to reality and deal with the real issues politically. Mau Mau served its role then, now we fight different. Please reconsider your position; we are not fighting the colonial government. And remember, in any case, in this country we need each other as a team.

When you depend on the myopic leadership of this world to curve political direction for you, then you are in deep trouble and headed for the ravine of a social catastrophe. Choices good people, choices in life. And the tragedy is where the younger folk fall into line believing that that is the way it should be done.

Let us mull this over and find practical ways and means to stamp out the school unrest today!

Sande
HR Activist
VIHIGA

– – –
Date:  Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:03:08 -0700 (PDT)
From:  Sande
Subject:   SCHOOL UNREST WAVE TWO – – More than Meets the Eye