Why President Ruto should make Kiswahili council dream a reality

A Maasai girl reads Kiswahili words during class time. [iStockphoto]

As Kenya joined the world in marking the International Day of Kiswahili in Mombasa yesterday, it did so in the realisation that drawbacks exist in recognising Kiswahili as both a national and official language of this country, as stipulated in the 2010 Constitution.

One of the biggest strides that Kenya should make is to ensure the formation of a national council of Kiswahili that will guide usage of the language that has been East Africa’s lingua franca. Formation of such a body has been the requirement of the East Africa Kiswahili Commission to partner states of the East Africa Community.

So far, only Tanzania has such a body. It standardises Kiswahili terminologies and usage, among other issues.

Kenya’s former Cabinet Secretary for East Africa Affairs Peter Munya made a heroic gesture of convincing the Cabinet that Kenya should adhere to the East Africa Commission (EAC) protocol to establish a national council of Kiswahili. The Cabinet ratified the proposal but the body is yet to be put in place.

For Kiswahili to prosper in Kenya, the country needs only one supporter from the government, two will be overwhelming and three is a crowd.

Today, issues around the growth of Kiswahili are discussed in a crowd. We have many associations of Kiswahili at different levels ranging from students, teachers, university dons, language enthusiasts including media among others. Unfortunately, they do not pull together on the matter of growing the language.

That is why we have taken 6 years without forming a council and still counting, yet the cabinet gave a thumbs up for the process to commence.

That follows therefore that in case the council is established this year, it will be operational in the next financial year should the Ministry of Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage itemize it as a priority in its budget and convince parliament and treasury for allocation- that remains a pipe dream though.

Esteemed Kiswahili stakeholders should strategise on the best way of getting a national council. What has been lacking has been political goodwill. Stakeholders should seek out political leaders in the country to push for their support including having the Principal Secretary at the relevant ministry Ummi Bashir and Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa, herself a first speaker of Kiswahili, to speed up the matter of getting a Kiswahili regulatory body. That includes cascading the matter to the Head of State for the dream to be realised.

Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan should be applauded for his efforts of tabling a bill in Parliament to give Kiswahili legal recognition in Kenya. He followed the process to its logical conclusion when Parliament passed the Bill on November 22, 2022. Cabinet authorised the formation of a National Council of Kiswahili.

This was a step in the right direction, the next one, which is to draw up the plan of forming the council, remains the elephant in the room.

PS Bashir came up with a technical committee that was to draw a road map of establishing the body that, among other things, would advise the mother ministry on the structure and composition of the council and its scope of engagement. The committee was to look through the structure of a similar body in Tanzania and possibly create a unique and credible language body not only in Africa but the world. This is a sensitive area and should not allow personal or individual interests to supersede national one as intended by the framers of Kenya’s constitution.

As Kenya discussed a new constitution in 2010, the country wanted Kiswahili to occupy its rightful place nationally, in terms of usage and recognition.  It was felt that the country recognises the role of native Kiswahili speakers who are not necessarily scholars but have valid information that may not be in the province of those who have studied the language formally.

The country needs to speed up the formation of a regulatory body since Uganda and Rwanda are at an advanced stage of establishing their national Swahili councils. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is also thirsty about spreading Kiswahili within its ranks.

Tanzania has remained in the forefront because of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the country’s founding father was passionate about the language.

It is time President William Ruto pushes for the formation of Kenya’s national Kiswahili council.

Paul Nabiswa is a programmes Editor, KTN News