A few years ago, it was that if you didn't afford shoes, you didn't go to school. This was because although unaffordable to some, shoes were still way cheaper than the cost of primary education. But with President Mwai Kibaki's landmark initiative to provide free primary education to every Kenyan since 2003, an additional 1.5 million children were reported to have enrolled in school for the first time.
Kenyans value education and will pursue it as long and as high as they can. So over the last few years, parents tolerated an influx in pupil enrolments, including some adult ones who only wanted to finally write/spell their names. Kenyans stood by as pupils out-numbered teachers and education standards fell to record lows. Books and teaching materials became scarce. Those with some cash to spare enrolled their children into the ever increasing private academies. The best teachers left their public employ for a more lucrative pay with the private sector. Still life seemed to be good.
Then, the beast that seems to stalk Kenya's Public Sector struck again. News media started reporting of yet another corruption scandal, this time at the Ministry of Education. A government audit revealed that over 4.2 billion shillings had disappeared from the Ministry. Embezzled!
As it stands now, the minister and permanent secretary at that ministry of Education have refused to resign. But, I’ll not go into corruption and its notoriety in Kenya. Instead, let me show you what theft, misuse and misappropriation of these funds has denied and will continue to deny Kenya's neediest pupils.
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| EstherWambui/Photos |
I met these kids when I visited their school in Kibera a while back. When I see the innocence, beauty and hope in their eyes, I want to back our public officials into a corner and demand to know how they can continue with such impunity.
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| EstherWambui/Photos |
I was in a bus touring Kilifi recently when I saw these pupils going home from school for lunch. In such scorching sun, I was really saddened by the fact that in this day and age, majority walked shoeless.
Hi Wambui! It's interesting that you see this shoelessness as a disadvantage that needs to be corrected. Many of us in so-called developed countries are just now discovering that going barefoot is very healthy and beneficial. A lot of runners are adopting barefoot running, and in the last few years there has been much mainstream interest in shoes that simulate being barefoot. If anything these people you pity are actually influencing us here in the United States. Of course, everyone should be able to choose whether or not to wear shoes.
ReplyDeleteDo take a moment to consider that this prevalence of barefoot people, especially children, is a strength. It's the custom here in the west to put children in hard shoes as soon as they can walk. Many of us wear stiff inflexible shoes out entire lives. As a result, many of us have underdeveloped feet, and have never learned to walk or run properly, and face a host of foot and knee problems, and are dependent on various special shoes and orthotic devices, while while Kenya produces some of the strongest runners in the world.
I wish I could have gone barefoot to school. Sadly though, it is no longer allowed in most places now.
ReplyDeleteHi Warmbui,
ReplyDeleteYour desire to uplift your Kenyan breathen to a Western standard is morally and emtionally commendable. I myself am African although I have genetic European grandparents. Part of that heritage was obtaining a degree in Mechanical engineering and a further degree in Medicine. My advisor earned a PhD in Kenya, being actively involved in assigning Western-style title deeds to the lands of the farming communities. Furthermore I spent ten years programming computers to select shoes for western, indian and asiatic commercial customers.
Unfortunately, during that time I discovered no scientific principle that could recommend a healthy western-style sports shoe that was not injurious to the body.
One of my observations was that the foot anatomy of the indigenious African populations was totally different to that of the "western" idealised arched foot shape. It is an unpleasant truth that Western sports shoes are now known to be harmful to westerners.
It is a deep heartfelt sorrow to many of us in the west that your current selection of the western shoe as a prototype hallmark of advanced western civilisation, is necessary for an anatomically advanced African civilisation.
Besides that, keep up the good work.
Hi Barefoot Efrem, Thank you so much for your comment. Everything you say is true and I agree with except for me seeing shoelessness as a disadvantage. Beeing Kenyan and having only moved to the West recently, I can tell you that being shoeless in Kenya (and in most of Africa) is definitely a disadvantage. These kids have not chosen to go barefoot, they simply do not own a pair of shoes, or own only one pair that is 'spared' for special ocassions. In my early years, I did sometimes have to chose between going to school shoeless or wearing that "sunday-best" pair. I can tell you that I sometimes chose the barefoot option, and not all my friends were that lucky. Now that I can afford different types of shoes, I take pride in walking barefoot in my neighbourhood, the difference being that this time round, it's a choice.
ReplyDeleteHi bhthom, Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. I sometimes went barefoot, and at these times, I wished and prayed for a pair of shoes. I know for sure these pupils would love to wear shoes to school. If walking barefoot is a choice, then I applaud it. Walking barefoot because the family is too poor to afford a pair of shoes for their child/ren is just plain wrong and should be corrected