Former President Daniel arap Moi’s life has come to an end. At the height of his rule, he had become a veritable demigod.
He
could determine if you got a job or not. With one word, he could ruin
your business. He could turn your life into a nightmare, not knowing
when the secret police would come knocking on your door at night. Most
terrifyingly, he had the power of life and death over Kenyans. But he
did run the course of his life.
As
the political class whipped the country into an amnesiac hysteria over
Moi’s death, we might forget that children at the Kakamega Primary
School had their lives cut short when 15 of them died in a stampede.
To
take your child to school in the morning and be summoned to collect
their dead body is a harrowing fate. Yet death of children at school or
their maiming is not an anomaly in Kenya.
Last
year, children at the Precious Talents Primary School in Nairobi were
killed when the floor of their classroom gave way. And some time ago, at
the Lang’ata Road Primary School, police tear gassed children causing
them physical injury and lifelong trauma. There is also the case of a
child whose body was pulled out of a school pit latrine.
All
these and other cases are not unfortunate, as a priest pronounced
during a cleansing ritual at the Kakamega school. These are not freak
accidents or acts of God. These cases point to a negligent attitude of
government towards children of poor people.
DEATH TRAP
Take
the Kakamega case for instance. While it has not yet been established
what caused the stampede, the deaths occurred when children tried to
escape using a narrow dimly lit stairway.
A
layperson could easily have seen the stairway was a death trap in
waiting. Yet this school received approval from government officials in
the original and subsequent inspections for safety.
In
the Precious Talents school, mesh wire was used to build the floor
instead of the required steel rods. As a result, the floor used to be
bouncy. Despite the danger, this school was given a permit to operate
and a clean bill of health in subsequent inspections.
The
gassing at the school on Lang’ata Road happened when parents and
children were protesting theft of the school field by a high ranking
politician. Several children were injured and some were rushed to
hospital unconscious.
The pitiable
state of ablution blocks for children is just one of many encumbrances
poor children face. There are schools without walls or roofing. There
are places where children learn under trees. Surely, in the 21st
century, no matter the excuse for underdevelopment, no child should be
learning under a tree.
In the slums,
schools have squeezed spaces, if any, for sport. The neighbourhoods are
unplanned which leads to all kinds of threats to learning and welfare of
children. There are no halls for recreation, no green open spaces, no
lighting, no sewerage systems, no paved roads. It should be a source of
great shame that the colonial government built social halls in the poor
neighbourhoods where Africans were sequestered.
CRIMINAL GANGS
As
a result of this neglect, life for children in these impoverished
environments is one of constant struggle. In the rural areas, many end
up in activities like cattle rustling, while in city slums, some join
criminal gangs.
The neglect of poor
children has been present in the reigns of Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Moi,
Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta. Each one of them could have enacted and
enforced policy to upgrade all schools to an acceptable minimum
standard.
They could have ensured
that negligent state officials who issue permits irregularly are
punished without fear or favour. They could have chosen to ruthlessly
weed out grabbing of school land. They could have stamped out corruption
which siphons away money that could be used to build playgrounds,
social halls and other infrastructure in the slums and rural areas.
More fundamentally, they all could have ensured a decent standard of living for all citizens.
We
can scream all we want about Vision 2030 and other visions we will
create when one fails, but we will continue to fail unless all children
are provided with everything necessary for their success.
There
is a fundamental contradiction in having a plan for the future while
neglecting the health and educational needs of children.
Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator
No comments :
Post a Comment