Kuna myth fulani that has been normalized in the recent past to date that hii Kenya kama hujui mtu huwezi pata anything. But, how true is this? Let us take the next few moments to interrogate this theory well; tuone kama it’s true or just an excuse some people use to absolve themselves of the personal responsibility of continuously working at hard things till they see the desired results.
Imesemakana that hii kujuana siku hizi inaanzia hata nursery, but surely if we’re being honest, how many of us even went to proper nursery schools and who did our parents have to know juu some of our parents never even knew where the said school was. Tulipelekwa na elder siblings wakienda shule pia and walked back home juu schools were mostly within a walking distance. Granted that siku hizi kuna watoi wanapelekwa ma Montessori na nimesikia there’s a long waiting list to get in, but out of the 50 million Kenyans how many can even afford the fees of these schools in order to even start complaining about their waiting list?
...degree sio paper, ni muhimu sana, uliza Governor Sakaja, get yourself one if you can and learn what you are supposed to learn while at school juu hio ndio itakuokolea huku nje kwa market.
There are also approximately 31,218 public primary schools across the country that most of the population went through and are still expected to go through. Did you know that in most of the informal settlements, the educational needs are mostly met by Alternative Providers for Basic Education and Training (APBET) schools which essentially are low cost schools that are largely unregulated? Are you aware that according to World Bank’s estimates, approximately 60% of the urban population (which roughly stands at 15 million people) in Kenya reside in informal settlements? Sixty percent is a very significant number of people who are diligently toiling day in and day out to make ends meet for their families without the luxury of worrying about being on some imaginary waiting list. This is the least of their concerns as they are in a battle for survival. Their children eat and go to the schools that they can afford if at all and life goes on, bora uhai.
So, a majority of the population manages to go through life somehow scraping through the public school system, then eventually find their way to university/ college or start a small business that is thriving enough to sustain their families' immediate needs without “kujuana”, they just hunker down and get to work. A quick survey of your work place will also reveal that a majority of your colleagues just applied for the job, got shortlisted, attended the interview, excelled and were hired for their skills. Of course, there are people who were brought by someone, which is a fact we cannot run away from, but they are the exception rather than the norm as the numbers have revealed. There are 50 million of us, we can’t all possibly know someone, it is not practically feasible. As such, this notion that to get a job you must know someone is simply a fallacy even though the rate of unemployment and the number of educated frustrated youths are at an all-time high in the country, youth unemployment remains a global problem and not a uniquely Kenyan one. The youth will do well, to still pursue their degrees simply because a degree fundamentally is supposed to give one the power to read and not necessarily get you a job contrary to what we have been cultured to believe. A degree should open up your mind to possibilities that can then be turned into meaningful value-add engagements that then can generate an income.
All in all, degree sio paper, ni muhimu sana, uliza Governor Sakaja, get yourself one if you can and learn what you are supposed to learn while at school juu hio ndio itakuokolea huku nje kwa market. Otherwise, stay safe wadau na muendelee kupiga works na kujituma vilivyo, itajipa mdogo mdogo hadi tuomoke.