DOWNING THE TOOLS

From teachers, doctors, students to journalists

I remember like yesterday though it happened 11 years ago. While still proceeding with my elementary education at Dandora Primary school, in the heart of Nairobi’s Eastlands, or Eastlando if you may, noise just erupted from outside as classes went on. I was in class eagerly awaiting the lunch break to commence. Hungry and bored, it was around noon when all hell seemed to break loose. I’m not trying to be dramatic but you can imagine the horrifying feeling a 12 year gets on seeing the teachers and staff run around in confusion and the rooftop undergoing massive pelting from stones of all sizes.

MAYHEM! Destruction is normally a result

It was a fateful Monday that will forever remain etched in my mind. Events leading to the mini Armageddon were that a young pupil from James Gichuru Primary School, also in Dandora had passed away after being hit by a matatu (Public Service Vehicle) while crossing the road, just a few metres from the school. His fellow schoolmates in anger had burnt the vehicle down to a shell and resolved to get all pupils from the estate into protest against reckless driving. And boy did they succeed.

Money is almost always a matter of contention

This course of action bore fruit but at a cost. The simple chant of ‘No bumps, no school!’ not only resulted in the creation of road bumps along the estate’s roads, but it also taught me the power of action in numbers. Nevertheless, it was a day of unprecedented chaos with looting and confusion marring the image of Dandora. After really the melee had subsided, did I come to terms with what it really meant to participate in a strike.

All the Kenyan students want is to learn

For some strange reason, I tend to believe that the culture of taking industrial action by striking is deeply rooted in the Kenyan psyche and the aforementioned incident is just to show that it’s not only the doctors and as the current situation, teachers who duly opt to do so in order to be heard. We also have university students who amidst chants of ‘Comrade Power!’ make their voice heard and stomachs filled in such strikes. Woe unto you if you own a restaurant on their path. We even had their lecturers copy-pasting this style of airing their grievances sometime back and as I type are also starting on another strike. The Vice president then had to intervene when prison warders threatened to take the same course of action and that was not long before many innocent lives were lost due to doctors opting to use a strike to twist the government into hearing their pleas. As a matter of fact, it’s just a few days since Kenyatta National Hospital, the biggest hospital in this part of the world duly fired 400 intern doctors who had also borrowed a leaf from their seniors and downed their tools. And don’t get me started on the section of women who wanted to deny their men conjugal rights in protest…

Normally, a 'ring leader' will gather the masses

As a college student, I have at times felt that only a strike would make the administration of my institution come into terms with some of the student needs. Yet I know deep down that a better way exists. I think when the gap is too large or the concerns too grave, then two parties might find great loss once a strike is called. The Government promising 300% increase of salary, albeit 15 years ago to teachers has come to hunt it now. The issue must be addressed because time wasted can never be recovered. The ball is in the teacher’s union and state representatives to chart a way forward.

The First family; Probably the children are in the best private schools

 I do not support the teacher’s strike but maybe, just like that sunny day in Dandora, back in 2001, a lasting solution will be found. Till then, I remain, Njabia the 3^rd.