Trickery, deceit, anarchy etc are
among the many words that have been constantly used to describe today’s student
leadership. In fact, many have gone ahead to argue that betrayal, goonship and
unfounded pride are indeed the three side of the same coin when it comes to
matters of students and power.
Owing to this, many have gone an
extent further to rubbish even the strongest and able of the student’s bodies.
The Kenyan media has been instrumental in this smear campaign with unrivalled
level of success. It will not be surprising to come across (in the local
dailies) phrases such as “rowdy Moi university students engage the police in
running battles damaging private properties...” , “Traffic in halt as UoN
students extort and harm motorists along Uhuru Highway...”
Whether it is just a reckless and
deliberate move by journalists seeking to sell more; or collusion of the
varsity administrations with the media to silence the students’ voices of reason,
it is now an incontestable truth that the student leadership in this country
has been mispresented and consequently misperceived. The Kenyan public has
incessantly been made to believe that those students who participate in riots
are errants, drug addicts whose only rightful place ought to be behind the
bars.
However negative the student leadership
has recently been made to appear, it would only be myopic to wish away the
immense contribution strong student unions has made. For instance, SONU, during its vibrant of times,
was hugely involved in the fight for increased democratic space when Kenya was under
tyrannical undemocratic regimes. The front liners in the march towards a
democratic state were, more often than not, university student leaders. Their
selfless focus for a better nation cannot be wished away even up to this very
day.
But where did the rain start beating
the student leaders? Is it that the modern times we live in have nothing worth
a fight from these intellectual giants? Methinks the university administration
set out to weaken the student bodies in a bid to cover up management
malpractices and gross financial misconducts rive in these institutions. No
wonder anybody with financial might can easily and safely secure a degree from
most of these institutions. The results? Students are left disenfranchised and
to fight their own fight. It is not surprising to learn that majority of student’s
strikes are not even led by the student leaders but students who feel pressed
against the wall. These joint frustrations culminate into street protests whose
results you know better.
The media on its side goes ahead and
present the students’ strikes as criminal acts terming them unfounded and
unacceptable. Instead of giving their audience an independent, non-biased
account of why the students took to the streets, they contrarily feed the
masses with biased information rendering the student leadership unable and ineffective.
This has bred restrictive stereotypes and negative aspects of student
leadership which consume,
rather
than productively use, students’ brainpower, energy and
Resources
in advocating for a just society. Even worse, they may inhibit and stifle the talent
and potential of the very people, this country can
Most
ill-afford to waste, or lose.
It is worth emphasis that the
contribution of these youthful citizens is inevitably needed so as to align
them in tandem with the mood, spirit and the aspirations of Kenya and Africa as
a region.Demonizing their course will only lead us back to where we all dread
to be.
Dubois Maina is a student leader and a scholar in economics, the
University of Nairobi.
