The Faults in Our Stars, Sorry Political Class.

What a crazy time to be a Kenyan citizen!! Less than a year since the general elections that left the Kenyans with holes in their pocket and the politicians, well with a sore throat as a result of the noise they made trying to woo voters.

Since the so called handshake, we have had political comedy centrals at the heart of the nation. A looming referendum, political dancing chairs even when we are at the middle of a downpour that has seen hundreds lose their lives.

Even juicer, last weekend a media house ran a story of what could be another money lost by the heavily funded NYS through tenderpreneurs. Isn’t it just crazy how we get whirled by crazy events that involve taxpayers’ money?

The University Dons strike is still on. Two months later and nobody seemed perturbed by the state of affairs at the higher learning sector. This could be a sign that Kenyans are mere votes and nothing more.

Barely a year since we voted, I believe 90% of university students were involved in the general election and probably their votes even resulted to the win of the current government, but the same voters are still waiting for their lecturers to get paid. These voters are probably so idle that they are hooked to some sort of drugs or even prostitution in some dark alley somewhere at the CBD.

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We are 3 months shy to a year since the general elections were held and now succession politics have already started creating a storm among the so called coalitions. Why are we bringing 2022 elections debate to a nation that has striking lecturers in 25 public universities? Why 2022 when the just hired ministerial appointees have already getting their hands in the cookie jar?

 

Empty lecture halls as a result of lecturers’ which the government is yet to address. Photo/ Courtesy

 

 

County governments are yet to prove their worth at the county level but their showdowns are the only performance they can account of.

A cartel country is a word that has been thrown around and now it is evident that the common citizens are just a means to power and not a symbol of a country that acquired independence through sacrifice from people who wanted power within the people. Now it turns out that power is no longer within the people but within some quarters.

We can always chest thump about our tribal affiliations when supporting individuals, but deep in our hearts we now know that politicians are a class of people who sleep in the same bed. People who would craft a referendum overnight and influence the same people who they have evidently failed to represent in different capacities to embrace a referendum that has no importance to them.

Parting Shot: I am not a prophet but I believe by the time I am done penning this article, some millions somewhere have been diverted to a personal account, after all they eat the meat while we do the dishes, right?

By Victor Von Njagi

 

Meet The 30 Year Old Undergraduate Students

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I pen this article with utmost disgust towards the state higher learning in the country. Since last year January, the lecturer have downed their tools for at least three times.

This translates that students who were likely to graduate this year might spend another year walking around the school compound like an adult son who does not want to leave his native home village and settle somewhere else.

The public universities lecturers’ strike is now overdue and it is a worrying situation that should be addressed once and for all.

Since January last year the Dons have been on strike for one calendar year which translates to a whole academic year.

As much as primary and secondary education have had a lot of emphasize being put upon by the government and the taxpayers, the plight of university students needs to be addressed.

University students are on their final stages of contributing to the income tax that the country needs so much in laying infrastructure and paying of foreign debts that have been a matter of national concern. Delaying the graduation of students by over one year is not only putting a strain to the affected students and parents but also to the country as a whole.

 

Members of the UASU doing what they do best:Downing tools. Photo/Courtesy

The prolonged strikes could likely create a scenario where university halls are overcrowded as a result  a backlog of students who are yet to complete their studies.

The strike is also putting the public universities in bad light as parents may shy away from these institutions and therefore popularizing private institutions where the quality of education offered is always under public scrutiny.

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All the agencies involved need to address the issues affecting the all 22 public universities which have over 100,00 youths who are looking forward to seek employment, start businesses upon completion of higher education.

Most Employers are after fully trained graduates who will not be an expense through training upon employment. Recently students sat for their end of semester exams on February after only being in class for only a month, only for the strike to resume again upon the completion of examination.

This shows how the quality of university education has been watered down by the frequent strikes and poor running of the universities. Soon we might have a crop of half-baked engineers, doctors, teachers and other professionals which will in return bring chaos in almost every industry across our growing economy.

Universities also offer a great avenue for innovative ideas and also a room for research in various fields of the economy. Therefore we are looking a generation of youths who might not utilize their great potential in solving problems that are currently a challenge to the society.

By addressing these issues, the government will have solved looming social issues like insecurity, drug abuse and an upsurge of unemployment which is likely to be felt a few years from now.

Let us bring back the lost glory of the university education.

Parting shot: A university student who enrolled to a public university  for a degree course in early 2015 might graduate on August 2019,his counterpart in a public university is done with classwork and will graduate sometimes this year! what a country we live in.

By Victor Von Njagi

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Higher Education with an Extra High

 

YOLO is the most abused term in campus life , everyone is all about experimenting everything that the world has to offer. Unprotected sex ,betting, public likes and the most lethal of them all; Drugs.

Even the A student in high school who was an introvert in secondary school will tell you they have tried at least a drug while in Campus.Drug dealers have realized that campus students are a ready market for any drug that will guarantee them a high.

Codeine

Gone are the days when alcohol was a taboo, unless you had raised kids of your own , alcohol is just alcohol and campus students are experimenting on other drugs because alcohol has turned out to be so random. Over the counter is the new darling to young adults, media reports have exposed a popular chest syrup with an active chemical called codeine. Codeine is an active ingredient in cough syrups that causes drowsiness and therefore, a feeling of “high” making it a cheap substitute for cocaine and other narcotics.

Codeine is popular among khat users,considering khat is heavily consumed countrywide, codeine has witnessed huge sales until the Poisons Board instructed pharmacists to sell the drug only under prescriptions .The drug is either mixed with Soda or alcoholic drinks and creates a euphoria to the user.

Shisha

Shisha is another darling to Campus students that did not last long as the government banned it in the beginning of the year, women were increasingly getting hooked up to the tobacco product which has a flavor element that entices most users. Some business collapsed upon the ban since young people had ventured in the shisha supply business.Unlike cigarette , health experts believe that shisha has more adverse effects to a user compared to a pack of cigarettes

A reveler smoking shisha in a night club.The average shisha-smoking session lasts an hour and research has shown that in this time you can inhale the same amount of smoke as from more than 100 cigarettes. photo/courtesy

Marijuana

Marijuana is one of the most popular drugs you will come across in campus. There are dealers in almost every corner.They collude with campus security to ensure business does not come to a halt, students are also used along the chain to ensure that the drugs get to the final user.Marijuana has resulted to campus dropuots due to its long term effects such us Impaired thinking and ability to learn and perform complex tasks ,Lower life satisfaction on the user.Weed cookies are also popular because they are not easy to detect.

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Alcohol

Alcohol sums up everything in campus. Most graduates are not able to cope with employment due to excessive indulgence to alcohol once they are employed. Monday has the least attendance due to the weekend Chronicles that involve sampling of almost all alcohol brands that come along the way.

Alcohol is the culprit for unplanned pregnancies in campus, drunk driving especially in private universities and other premature deaths as a result of being disorderly during night outs.

Government agencies need to create awareness on drug and substance awareness among young people.Universities also need put up stringent rules on drug use  within school premises The future of the young people can only get better if the spend most of their lives sober and orderly. Parents also need to set a good example because drug influence can be as a result of exposure at young age.

Lets campaign towards a sober generation!!

 

By Victor Von Njagi

 

If you are hhoked to drugs and need help, click here

Revisiting The Shithole Shenanigans.

Today is January 45th and as I write this piece I believe anger has cooled in all the 52 independent states of Africa and Haiti included.

  shithole

            ˈʃɪthəʊl/           

            noun

vulgar                                                                                                                                                  an extremely dirty, shabby, or otherwise unpleasant place.

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A while ago the president of the United States caused a stir by calling African countries shithole countries, this did not go well with the entire continent but anger aside, we need to put personal issues aside and address why this statement may have come up in the first place.

Over decades since most African countries acquired independents, we have been ridiculed for our poor ways of managing issues and how we implement policies both social and political as a whole.

Below are some of the reasons why the shithole name might hang around for a while;

1. Politics

Africa is still covered by the dictatorship cloud, countries have crumbled as a result of civil war. Rwanda being a perfect example of how people of one nation should not engage in war for political differences.

South Sudan the youngest country in Africa isstill facing war simply because of political differences among leaders that have led to a rift between citizens.

Leadership is being inherited by families making us a monarch continent indirectly.

Other leaders sticking to power for over 20 years acquiring the title father of the nation like the Biblical Abraham!

Leaders are still after selfish interests and do not put the interests of the people who vote them. What a shithole!

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2. Agriculture

Well food is everything and this cannot miss on the list. We are always starving and food security is always a recurring issue. Almost all countries economy is relying on agriculture as the backbone.

Farmers do not get value for their produce which has a high rank in the world coffee, tea and cocoa is just a good example.

Internally most countries cannot feed their populations because authorities that are responsible with matters of food do not take their job seriously.

Semi-arid areas rely on Non Governmental agencies to start up projects to sustain them during the hard times.

Why should be agriculture be a backbone of our economy yet people are dying of starvation?

Kenyan tea is ranked among the best, but farmers do not get value for their produce due to exploitation. photo/courtesy

3. Education

Let’s face it education is foreign, it might be confusing for some folks , but isn’t it time we revisit the quality?

Graduates are graduating every year with funny titled courses only to go back to their villages and do nothing.

We need education that solves our problems not imported courses that are not needed in the market.

Our education system is the reason there are minimal inventions or innovations from our youth.

We need to equip our children with skills that make them problem solvers of their society.

That is why Africans are in the Mediterranean sea searching for greener pastures in Europe.

Others have been enslaved in Arab countries.

You cannot blame a brother for looking elsewhere.

4. Corruption

Africa still ranks highly in corruption, we loose billions of revenue through corruption. Taxpayers cannot get value for their tax because other people have to fill their bellies.

We have poor infrastructure, poor health, bad roads, poaching of income gaining wildlife. We cannot grow economically if integrity and transparency of the leaders is still questionable.

Countless times have donors frozen their funding due to misappropriation of aid meant to improve people languishing in disease, poverty and hunger.

The above issues are just an example of why we need to revisit the shithole statement and look deeper in ourselves and figure why we are messed up.

What do you think we need to improve to make Africa a better place for us all?

By Victor Von Njagi

 

So Many Graduates Very Little Job Opportunities

2017 is almost taking a bow and it has been a rough one for the majority of the Kenyans.

The last three months has witnessed massive graduation of students from various universities across the country.

One could not simply resist the social media traffic of graduation selfies and the massive long post alerts of graduates posting lengthy Facebook posts of how the academic journey has been tough. But surely tough is not the academic journey, tough is the job search journey.

The job hunt is crazy and most graduates are depressed by the second month after graduating.

It is worth noting that Kenya currently is home to 25 public universities and 14 chartered private universities. I do not even want to go further and mention the number of colleges which might even be scary.

However as a society it is important to look back and see where we have gone wrong in promoting the welfare of graduates from colleges and universities.

Kenya is yet to develop an entrepreneurship culture and this is evident at young age, every child wants to be a doctor, a pilot, a lawyer. Which in my view is a skewed way of how society has made young people see life. Everyone wants to be employed by someone!

I pray for a society that will have primary school children who want to be prominent business men and not popular employees. Society where young people want to solve the problems of the society and not be the problem that is crippling the economy of the society.

When I was in college pursing my diploma, I was introduced to a unit by the name entrepreneurship during my final year in college and the unit only lasted for three months.

Sadly, throughout my other years of training it was mostly on how I can make the right impression to potential employers, therefore after my graduation my fellow comrades and I could only think of searching jobs and not coming with a business idea, considering the fact that we had strong skills not only in journalism but also in content creation and other broadcasting skills.

Six months after graduation our WhatsApp group was dry. No one had time to chat and even mind the welfare of the other.

Owing to the fact some had already gone back to their rural homes after a futile job search and those that had jobs, landed jobs that were not relevant to what they studied in college .From Mpesa attendant to commission based sales job.

 A job seeker with a placard in the streets ,this explains the level of job search in Kenya . Photo Courtesy 

This is just a rough picture of what is happening to a pool of graduates who are not trained to be entrepreneurs but just to be employed by blue chip companies that are falling down due to economic crisis and resulting to retrenchment of professions.

The same companies that only hire people with 15 years of experience because they are not ready to waste resources training newbies.

That said, starting up a small business is also proving to be a nightmare because capital is a constant headache for any startup, the government sponsored loans are not easy to come by and student loans already create a barrier to graduates who have not yet paid up their education loans.

Folks upcountry are worried by the second month f you really pursued the right degree course, but in real sense there isn’t much to write about the most marketable course to pursue but rather. Which is the most marketable idea to invest in Kenya.

For the next 30 years, the graduate problem in Kenya will only be solved not by the current running companies but by SMEs and startups that will be created in the next 20n years.

So my dear fresh graduates who still have fresh profile pictures with flowing gowns on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. Ask yourselves not what the society can do for you but what you can do for this society.

Once again congratulations on your journey that has just began!!

 

– VICTOR VON NJAGI –