under the guise of generics. In Kenya
today there are people going through
serious chemotherapy treatment
using fake drugs.
This multi-billion shilling industry
is impossible to resist for fraudsters.
They specialize in producing fake
commonly used drugs like headache
pills and injections that are in most
part just clear liquids.
The insidious effect to the health
of the entire country is jeopardized
and we may be facing uncontrollable
epidemics in the future because
measures taken to prevent them
today have used fake drugs.
However what shook the country is
the shocking realization that we may
have an entire generation that has
had a fake education. This alarming
state of affairs has been achieved
by a well-coordinated cooperation
between parents and teachers.
Since the key to upward mobility
has always been education in
Kenya, it did not take too long for
the enterprising Kenyans to find a
way to create an easier path. With
money everything became possible.
Parents took their children to
tuitions where they were coached
to answer the exact exam that they
would seat. The child’s capacity to
memorize was the only hindrance
to them achieving high grades.
This well organized fraud would take
your child from primary, through
secondary and into tertiary education
without them having ever struggled
to pass an exam. In the process a lot
of rote memorizing was done with no
learning.
Employers had for a while been
complaining about the caliber of
graduates from our institutions
of higher learning and healthy
debate had even started querying
the syllabus and the whole 8:4:4
education system.
96 MAL 17/17 ISSUE
‘‘ What Kenya
needs is progressive
leadership without
fake credentials.
If Kenyans do
not transcend the
tribal trap and start
choosing leaders
on merit and not
tribal affiliations, we
are all doomed to
mediocrity.’’
As it turns out the system, as
imperfect as it is, was not the main
culprit but the fake schools that
had made education a commercial
good. All but a few of the stellar
performing schools had a hand in the
fraud.
So today in the market we have fake
teachers, fake engineers, fake doctors,
fake managers which all result in
low productivity. These same people
who received the fake education are
the reason corruption has reached
unprecedented levels.
To take this a step further, we have
fake politicians with fake certificates
who will never understand what
legislation is even if they were
to retain their positions for two
decades. We have our country being
driven by people with no driving
licenses.
There is no need to delve into the
fake political parties which form fake
coalitions with their single agenda
being to ascend to power. From
where Ochieng sits he cannot tell the
difference between TNA and Jubilee
and the difference between CORD
and NASA.
These political vehicles which are
devoid of any known manifestos
specialize in giving competing rivals
escape avenues should they be rigged
out of the fake primaries that are held
ostensibly to pick the best candidate
but the richest always win.
This business of having the same
monkeys in different forests is what
has eroded our trust in politicians and
since they really have no vision for
a Kenya beyond their stomachs it is
really depressing when one turns out
to vote.
Ochieng would like to have the last
word in this discussion by reminding
you that what has been stated is not
fake news and to implore you to
wake up from the politically induced
stupor that has Kenyans solving the
wrong problems.
It will not matter whose turn it
is to eat if there is nothing to eat.
We wailed for a new constitution
because those fake politicians
told you it will solve all your
problems. Its main achievement
seems to have created more
positions for them and devolved
corruption.
Ochieng fails to see which ethnic
group has not been tainted by the
corruption bug. Moi’s infamous
statement, ‘Siasa mbaya maisha
mbaya’ is truer today as we grapple
with fake politicians with their fake
promises.
What Kenya needs is progressive
leadership without fake credentials. If
Kenyans do not transcend the tribal
trap and start choosing leaders on
merit and not tribal affiliations, we
are all doomed to mediocrity.
We can begin by voting in leaders
of integrity who are not tainted by
corruption. If you insist on sending
a thief to catch a thief, you will soon
discover that they are having a party
in their various assemblies at your
expense. That is not fake news!