Education is an important aspect of the growth of every; child, youth, and adult. The joy in every parent is clearly seen in a child’s first baby steps when a child learns how to utter their first words, the first day they join kindergarten, even more, special when a child gets to wear a graduation gown as they graduate from PP2 to grade 1. A parent’s joy never fades, it is with them all the way to when their child attains a KCPE/KCSE certificate, a graduate degree, a master’s degree, to even a Ph.D. 

All these celebrations are a manifestation of a million little miracles where a father will stand among men in pride waiting to be counted, a mother will always shed a tear of satisfaction. Have you accomplished any of these stages at some point and sat down to ask yourself what your parents/guardians had to sacrifice for you to accomplish all that?

5:00 am in the morning men and women camp at the gates of their members of parliaments(MPs) constituency offices, yet the office opens at 8:00 am. You may mistake it as a polling day whereby they are excited to vote, but that’s never the case, yearly you will find them patiently waiting to receive bursary forms. Which does not necessarily mean qualification of attaining a bursary because hundreds of people are on the same course and not everyone who enters through the gate leaves with a form. I am yet to know if it is the people present who overwhelm the available printed forms or the funds allocated. 

Something you may never see on the mainstream media is; I have witnessed a couple of accidents but one that still stands out in my eyes is an accident of pure passion. Of women and men dying, suffocating, breaking limbs, bleeding, losing valuable items in order for them to obtain a single bursary form. An ambulance is on standby ready to ferry the injured but no one seems to notice as their eyes are glued to the prize, a single form, or if they are in luck they get an extra form for their other child. 

I have seen men and women make long queues on dump muddy grounds, they do not mind the grounds they step on because all that is in their hearts is a daughter/son(s) whom they are responsible for their education. They know how it feels like not having an education or struggling to get one, they give their kids the best they could. But on these days most leave without forms, some go back home without shoes, others become hospital guests, some lose their lives, but those who know how to battle a queue go home with their hearts’ content. 

You read this article and want to call them animals right? Replay this in your mind, want to term them as an uneducated group right? But how is this any different from the queues we make at city hall/banks? Then a man in a suit walks to the front and passes all of you, gets served, and leaves you there? How different is it from, during election day you are on the queue at 8:00am your constituency MP walks in at 12:00pm waves or shakes half the hands of the people on queue as he/she makes his/her way to the front votes and leaves you there, and the audacity in us to label them humble and vote them in again? 

You vote in again these MPs who grab public land and build sketchy clubs for the Constituency people to drink away their sorrows, you vote in again these MPs who can’t queue on the same line as the normal mwananchi probably because they are superior to us? You vote in the same MPs because they disburse a few coins for a bursary. What you do not know is how the funds are used, do they fully get utilized? You vote in the same MPs who give you 7k for bursary where education in Kenya is supposed to be free but your child’s school fees is 12,000shs yet your child was sent home because you did not pay the teacher 2500shs motivation money, which bursary does not cover. 

You vote in again the same MPs who do not give service to the people of their constituency because they are busy serving their needs. A Luta Continua – the struggle continues my good people. 

How can we solve these problems?

1. Vote wisely, do not vote for the same trouble makers. 

2. Bursaries seem not to be enough probably because of the high living conditions we find ourselves in but also the problem could be mismanagement therefore thorough audits should be conducted and made available to the public domain. 

3. Students still get chased out of school despite bursaries giving a boost. This only means we don’t live in a country where education is free, therefore we either revise our constitution, work on reducing the cost of living or either increase educational funds to be disbursed. 

4. Who said corruption isn’t everywhere; as others get 7,000shs after breaking a limb, there is someone abled who receives a call to come and pick a bursary cheque of 20,000shs only because they probably parted ways with a handout of 2,000shs. How to solve this is by ensuring equal distribution across the different school fees invoices. 

5. Rhetorically speaking: If one is from Kasarani constituency not everyone gets the bursary aid because you will find it being distributed to other constituencies due to corruption or money laundering. I am well aware a student may be a resident of Kasarani but studies in Ukambani, and these are some of the challenges CDF encounters. 

Two ways to solve; children being sent home from school, bursaries not being enough and avoidable/controllable circumstances is by:

  • Changing the leaders we re- elect by electing leaders who come up with solutions. 
  • Instead of the long queues why not have bursaries being distributed to schools directly for individual students, proposed by principles and assigned committees. Principles are well versed with the community therefore they are able to identify the needy students within the communities. 

It’s not like there won’t be glitches with this system but the current system hasn’t been working, clearly, it’s time for a change.

First come first served works in other institutions but not in the education docket, simply because every child is entitled to an education. Bursaries given to students are between 4,000shs – 7,000shs who are we kidding? Which school in Nairobi has this as their school fees amount?

A change in bursary distribution is a change in the education system. We should not have CS Magoha physically returning students to schools because they do not have school fees. We need to agree that this is a dire catastrophe affecting Kenya as a nation then find a workable solution. 

MaryMwas ✌✌✌