YOUTH SPEAKS LEADERS OF TOMORROW – BUT WILL TOMORROW EVER COME?

When our fathers were the age that we, young people, are now, they were told to work hard and get ready because they were the leaders of tomorrow. Many years have gone by, and to call my father a youth now would be insult enough to trigger a curse. If you are a young person like myself, the same would probably be the case with your father. But neither of them are yet leaders. Those who were leaders in that era are still in office today while others have been forced to pack up and go home when the new government came into power. To be replaced by whom? Not by resourceful young men but by other old guards! Uhuru tried his hand at being president, but at 40 he was told that he was still inexperienced. My father is 55 and not yet a leader; his tomorrow is still to come.

Today the old guards are telling us the same thing but I, being wiser and not content to be fed on empty promises, have decided not to wait for tomorrow. I feel that today is my day to lead a nation, if nothing else, at least with advice. And this is the advice I would give them:

Our youthful nation recognizes the good work done by our government in many areas for the good of all Kenyans. And because it appears that much remains to be done–since some of the promises are still to be realized–we have found it advisable to express our minds on the question of education.
Kenyans are happy that primary l education is free at last. Millions of children are benefiting from this, not to mention those freedom fighters that are feeling that the freedom they fought for has come with the NARC government and so they too are taking advantage. This means that the literacy rate will be quite high compared to what it has been. However, I believe that to be literate is not the same as to be educated. What is the government doing to educate its people?

There are a lot of literate people in the streets today and most of the fools I know are literate: many of them have made it to class eight but nothing more. With free primary education what is the end in view? Is it to increase the numbers of those who are schooled until class eight? And then what? Kenya will end up having many literate people but to what purpose? A people so literate as to be able to distinguish between NARC and KANU and yet so illiterate that the only role they can play in nation building is as voters because they have not been prepared for anything else.
In Tanzania, where free primary education has been provided for many years, there are many youth who have completed their primary education but there does not seem to be much sense in it. These youngsters come back and lead a life no different from those who dropped out at class four. Together they go for tailoring and mechanics classes and together they fail to get employment. And all this while the government continues to invest more and more in primary education. This being the situation, the country remains at the mercy of donors. However, do not misunderstand me, I am not against free education, I am only thinking ahead. .

Suppose the government would invest more in higher education. The result would be that more people would be joining colleges and universities than is presently the case. This is the group that comprises what we call the educated class and they are the most useful assets for nation building. These are the people who, even when circumstances force them to go back and hold a spanner or sit behind a sewing machine like the class eight leavers, their output will be better in comparison since their education has prepared them to be creative. Let the government decide to invest more in secondary and university education and you will see that Kenya was never meant to be on the beggars’ list. What do you think?