A letter to all Form Four leavers: Out here life ‘ni shamba la mawe!’

 [Photo: Courtesy]

I just have to write about parents and runaway indiscipline this week.

Since caning was banned, children have become human rights activists - often choosing to do what they want, when they want.

I am a firm believer in the Swahili saying that samaki mkunje angali mbichi. This directly translates that a fish is flexible when it’s still raw - before it’s cooked or dried. Meaning you can manipulate it into whatever shape you wish in that state. 

One Gabriel Oguda attempted to convince us that the action was taken against Ambira High School students who hurled insults at Interior CS Fred Matiang’i and his Education counterpart Amina Mohamed - as captured in a video that went viral- is akin to subjecting ourselves to hierocracy (rule or government by priests or ecclesiastics). 

He argues that the boys are our sons. They have gone through four years of panel-beating. They are the graduating class of 2018.

The best that school could offer this year. The pride of their parents and community around that area. 

That when you choose to look at their behaviour from the prism of a purist, obviously you will see boys who were not raised well.

Boys who have no sense of occasion. Boys who belong at the bottom of the sewer tank. Boys who should be rounded down and given a dog’s beating. 

But you could also choose to look at them from the viewpoint of a relativist. Indeed, you will see adolescent kids struggling to make sense of their world in a country that has no morals.

You will see boys struggling to be men in a country that has politicians as their role models. If you choose to interpret the behaviour of those Ambira schoolboys and place it in the context of their country’s leadership, you will see a government that jails exam cheats, but rewards election thieves.

You will see boys struggling to understand why they should be punished for burning books when others have gone scot-free for burning disabled grandmothers seeking shelter in a church.

You will also see young boys struggling to understand why politicians who use abusive expressions as their default political lingo would be rewarded with high leadership positions when young boys who do the same are being asked to kneel down and speak to cops. 

I agree with some of his sentiments, but compared to our days, even though we were familiar with similar vulgar insults, we could not dare to utter them in public.

If you did, your parents would cane you to a pulp. That is how we were disciplined. Oguda ignores the fact that the boys boasted of cheating in the exams. It’s the work of government to arrest and find out the truth.

Despite completing school more than 20 years ago, I still have my school books in my mother’s store.

Burning schoolbooks after clearing exams send a very bad message. Clearing Form Four does not mean that you stop learning.

The quest for knowledge should not have an end. Why else do you think old mzungu tourists are always reading books? This is a culture they picked up when they were young, and it is important to keep their brain cells active.

To Form Four leavers, let me tell you for free, you are just starting life which out here is not what you think. Ni shamba la mawe.

Unfortunately, this era of social media if you do silly things and record them like Ambira boys, they remain in records and it will haunt you later in life. Most of you are turning 18 where we have been, done that and won a T-shirt.   

So, unlike our days when it was not very competitive and one could blunder and bounce back, today it is more difficult so please focus and ask the Lord to keep you out of temptations.

[e-mail]

@AineaOjiambo

Would you like to get published on Standard Media websites? You can now email us breaking news, story ideas, human interest articles or interesting videos on: [e-mail]