When I returned from my doctoral studies nine years ago, I met a curious welcome when I returned to teaching. These days, I was told, all universities have to show how their programs are aligned with Vision 2030. Surprised, I asked: but what about nationhood, what about forming character and building citizenship? How do we sincerely expect issues of culture and values to be included in what is, essentially, a business strategic plan for the nation? Most of all, how do we deal with social inequality?
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Of course, I got no answer. 

It is one thing for Kenya's richest families to promote land purchase, speculation and ownership. But when idea shapers and professionals do it, I get worried. instead of writing a blog post, I decided to curate a few of my more prominent facebook posts about my worries on Kenya's land ethics. Other posts can be found on this blog under the subject Land and environment.

We who care about education, and who are employed to care, must scrutinize the major, huge-impact and hurried decisions coming from the Education ministry, at a time when people are distracted by elections.

The latest of these decisions is the announcement by the Education CS that EMIS (Education Management Information System) would be unveiled in the Kenyan education sector at the end of this month.

​There are a number of red flags in this announcement. First is that the two pillars of the EMIS mentioned by the CS are personal identification numbers for students, and closer monitoring of resources. The marriage of the two came from both the president and the CS in December last year, during the presentation of the problematic KCSE results to the president.

The last time I blogged in horror about the president’s choice of words, it was after he trivialized the rape of a toddler. I hoped that I would never again hear the head of state use this kind of talk that assaults our dignity. But it appears that I will continually be proved wrong.

This time, the president was celebrating the completion (I think) of a railway that has raised the country’s debt and sacrificed our environment. But as if we the people have not lost enough, the president promised the death penalty to anyone who causes damage to the railway. The reasoning? That damaging the railway is economic sabotage and life threatening, and so the person who pulls a metal rod, from the snake Syokimau prophesied about, has committed murder.

Such language is unacceptable.