Three academic giants fell and Kenya barely noticed

Which other country in the world lost three distinguished professors in one week, and continued with its business as usual, totally oblivious to the fact that something terribly wrong had visited the country? What kind of society are we living in? Why aren’t scholars making noise? What is going on in this country? Where is UASU?

This past week, the academy lost:

Professor Daniel Sifuna Namusonge, the cornerstone of Foundations of Education in the country. He taught at Kenyatta University for several decades. The man was principled to the hilt. I salute the great Prof Sifuna. Professor Migot Adhola; a Rural Sociologist who taught at the University of Nairobi before joining the World Bank as an agricultural expert, from where he was seconded to the government of Kenya as the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture as part of the Dream Team. Professor Karega Mutahi who taught Linguistics at the University of Nairobi, and intermittently worked in the government as a Permanent Secretary.

These men were giants in their fields of study and research. Kenya, Africa and the world are much poorer with the passing of these scholars. May their souls find rest in eternal peace.

The fact that the reports of their passing have not created any concern in the country is an indictment on the collective psyche of the Kenyan society. Ours is a society that has its priorities upside down.

Kenya should fly its flags at half mast as a sign of respect to the departed Professors. Well, I know it will not be done because we admire scholars but don’t value scholarship. We value politicians more than anybody else in this society of conmen. No wonder, the country is politically charged throughout the year. How I wish Kenya could be intellectually charged even for one week.

But, what is the perception that this society is creating to its youth? Are we telling the Gen-Zs that it’s useless to go to school, and to dedicate one’s life to serve society? That seems to be the case as our society celebrates politicians.

Let me share an experience I encountered in Homa Bay County in 2018. I went there to preside over an Education Day. As expected, most of the speakers were teachers, education officials and political leaders. Speaker after speaker encouraged the students to work hard so that one day they could be MCAs, MPs, Women Reps, Senators, Governor or President!

The most surprising thing was that even teachers themselves and education officials did not encourage the students to study hard and pursue professional careers in Medicine and Health, Accountancy, Economics, Engineering, Education, Science, Agriculture, Architecture, among others.

Everyone was simply focused on turning our able students into politicians. No wonder, the Nyanza region has excelled in producing resistant warriors and demonstrators. The Good Book says that you will harvest what you sow. Since the advent of the Moi reign, our society has been busy sowing political seeds. And what is Kenya harvesting now? Politics.

The successive regimes have not engendered a culture of hard work, resilience and service. All that Kenyans now know is that if one gets a chance to work in a government office, they should steal as much as possible for government is a bottomless purse, full of nobody’s money! And for some reason, Kenyans are happy when they are stealing.

They think it is such a big achievement. We are reaping what we have been sowing. Until we discover our “True North”, the country will continue on a southward trajectory. The choice is ours as Kenyans.

Prof Ongore is lecturer at the Technical University of [email protected]