August 4, 2008 - Too Much Freedom in Kenya

Kristoffer and I are back to work this Monday after a restful weekend. We continue to make improvements on our house and with the purchase of a new piece of furniture and some art this weekend, our upstairs living room is finished but for the perfect curtains (we are still hunting!). I am happy that today will be my second day of PAID work at UNICEF (wow that feels good!) and all is definitely well.

Unless you are a student in Kenya. Excuse my tirade for a few minutes, but I am horribly outraged by a decision made by the Cabinet (the President and Prime Minister's top ministers) last week to re-introduce the caning of students, or beating students with a stick, back into schools. To give some background on this matter, caning was outlawed in Kenya by the Children's Act of 2001, which increased the rights and protections of Kenyan students. This was seen to be groundbreaking legislation on the continent and furthered the world's view of Kenya as one of the most progressive African countries. In the last month, though, Kenya has been plagued by secondary student unrest, riots, protests, school vandalism and arson [all put under the category in Kenya of “mass action”].

There are many reasons for the students' anger: botched national exam scores last year, untimely mock national exams this year, overcrowded classrooms and limited resources, emotional trauma resulting from the post-election violence, to name a few. And the majority of Kenyans, not just a select few, believe that the reason for these disturbances is because teachers are not allowed to cane students. Now, I am not condoning the violence that students have committed because they have caused millions of dollars in damaged or destroyed property, have injured and killed students, and have completely interrupted an already difficult academic year; but instead of looking at the institutional reasons why schools in Kenya are failing students, the government would prefer to just blame the problems on the students and the fact that teachers can’t beat them into submission. And while it is deplorable that students have committed these crimes, who are their role models?!?! Politicians who financed and supported tribal violence that left over 1,000 people dead and close to a million people homeless after a completely un-free and unfair election!

To quote the Minister of Energy, a Cabinet member, in yesterday’s paper speaking on the reintroduction of caning, “We met as Cabinet last week and what we observed is that there is too much democracy that is quickly descending into anarchy. There is too much freedom in this country and what we are witnessing in schools is just a reflection of the larger society…The Cabinet has decided and teachers should listen to this: Let us not have child kings and queens in our schools, you spare the rod and you spoil the child…If a child does something wrong, he or she must be caned. As a Government we have said discipline has to be enforced in our schools.”
Too much democracy? Are you kidding me? I suppose that quote really says a lot about Kenya, but after 8 months I am still shocked! Sometimes I feel like this country is so backwards! And while many people think (Kenyans and many throughout the world…at least previously) that Kenya is such a great example for other nations, I think that is a load of crap! The government is just as hypocritical and corrupt as those in other African or developing countries. To make such progress by banning such inhumane treatment of students was wonderful, but to reverse the decision seven years later is worse than if they had never gotten rid of it at all. The fact that so many Kenyans support this decision – including Kenyans that Kristoffer and I know – makes the reality that much more appalling.

Okay…I suppose I’ll step down off my soap box now. I should be very productive at work today now that I’m all fired up!

LMW