The United States Ambassador to Kenya, Mr. Michael Ranneberger, announced yesterday that the US is also suspending its educational support for Kenya, along with the UK, until there are some answers on the ever-hovering (drifting?) education scandal (see prior blog).
The US initiative is going to cost Kenya’s primary school children roughly seven million dollars (532 Million Shillings) in further absent schoolbooks and texts. This must be counted along with the 1.2 Billion Kenya Shillings that has already been suspended by DFID in the UK.
He said (and I don’t quote) that the monies will not be forthcoming until there is a proper audit of the billions in primary education funds (from DFID, the US and the Kenya taxpayer) that have gone missing. He added that the US grant monies would not be made available until the perpetrators have not only been fired but are sitting behind bars for their criminal behaviour. Cheers, I say. It’s about time.
Meantime, the education minister is still in his job (despite overwhelming support for him being at least suspended) and is prancing around town, smiling and making jokes – most notably with Uhuru Kenyatta (he of the multiple ‘typing errors’) – and, would you believe, saying that Kenya will actually be fine without the funding. He also said that the actual amount in question is slightly less than 100 Million Shillings. A small thing he says …
Dear Honourable Minister, is this supposed to exonerate (or at least minimize) your likely guilt in the matter?
A forensic audit of the education budget has been performed (at least, we are told so), but the results of this are not being released for some undisclosed reason.
Of course, Kenya’s intrepid journalists have not followed any of this up.
Someone said last night on the news that it is going to be very hard to get to the bottom of things when all the files that are necessary to establishing guilt in the matter are still in the hands of the implicated parties (or have already been ‘lost’ somewhere).
Words fail me. (Remember, nothing has so far been computerized in Kenya’s government circles, for reasons I have already blog-mentioned).
The obvious misappropriation of these education funds – and the lack of any legal follow-up - leaves me with a very serious question as to the role of the police in this country. Traffic wardens, mainly, and thugs, secondarily ….
Why do I say this?
Yesterday it was reported that a school principal has been accused of raping a 14 year old pupil at his ‘upcountry’ school. This is his fourth or fifth ‘alleged’ incident of ‘defilement’. He even admits he has a sex problem. The issue of arrest and prosecution for rape has not appeared anywhere in the press or TV news.
Instead, a question was asked of TV viewers last night as whether they thought the education authorities would be adequately able to deal with the issue. 85% of text messages coming into the TV station said “No”! I genuinely, truly, utterly and completely can’t believe the involvement of the police in the matter is entirely absent…. Clearly, rape and paedophilia are not criminal offences in Kenya …
And another story about the police (or lack thereof) … A woman from some outlying area on Sunday asked a few members of the Administration Police (the main thugs in Kenya) to ‘discipline’ her 32 year old son who was tending to be a little rude to her. She paid them Ksh500 for their forthcoming effort (but it was ostensibly to pay for taxi fare 100m up the road).
By the next morning the young man was found in handcuffs, dead on the floor of a police holding cell. His mum is obviously mortified. But I guess, in a way, she got what was coming to her for her initial request.
There has been NO – I mean NO – suggestion of an investigation into the matter. The police are just let off the hook (what hook?) via a statement saying that it was simply a matter of ‘sudden death’. No postmortem. No inquest. Not even the pretense of an 'investigation'. Certainly no arrests. And, thanks to those same intrepid journalists mentioned above, no further reportage.
If there is anything that is going to have me leave this beautiful country, it’s this kind of thing. It’s actually beyond comprehension that millions can be openly stolen, children raped, young men mercilessly killed – all without any mention being made of investigations or police follow-up. And the people of Kenya just take it ...
"Let's have another Tusker folks ...."
"Let's have another Tusker folks ...."
And as for the role of the police in Kenya ? … I really have no idea other than the obvious one: Thugs, keeping the real criminals in power ....
B-)
