Monday, July 18, 2005

Nairobi is a bit misty today...I am told that Bill Clinton is making a visit to Kenya and would visit city primary school in nairobi. what interested me this morning is to take a visit in the school. For the last one year I have been complaining that the school needs a fresk coat of paint. Now the swam of City workers have descended on the school with shovels, pangas, paint and trucks to put the order back.
Built in 1940s this was an all white primary school and a citadel of apartheid like education system. I am not sure it has had a coat of paint since colonial days although it has a fine architecture. For the first time I appreciated the beauty of City primary...
What went wrong?
We should not be doing these things because a visitor is on the way but we must make do them because it is our kids in there. But there is a much more bigger picture than the one we see at City primary. The government budget cannot sustain free education and maintain the structures. It has been a problem simply because our main resources tea and coffee no longer fetch good rates at the international market thanks to Unfair Trade practices.
This country also coughs a fortune of our poor income to multilateral and bilateral donors to be credit worthy. We are deep in a hole and we should stop digging - G8 or no G8

1 comment:

bankelele said...

It's the Kenyan way - sprucing up a place before a dignitary (usually President comes to visit) - roads are re-carpeted, buildings painted, best students are brought forward, new uniforms etc. (e.g. Mombasa gets an annual 'bath' just before the President arrives for the agricultural show)