The looming disaster that is famine comes upon the country in a mix of strange and paradoxical circumstances; excess grain rotting in parts of the North Rift and poor produce prices as farmers suffer the misfortune of a bumper harvest and an educational policy aimed at redressing government inefficiency by somehow maltreating the few with good fortune to take their children into private schools. Not that I exactly want to dwell on that now... Of course the government will go ahead and issue a drought declaration and shiploads of corn will dock at Mombasa if they are lucky not to fall prey to the pirates en-route, but again, I refuse to genuflect at the altar of conjecture. The official position is that Kenya a hunger-free country; as scores go hungry and livestock succumbs in Turkana, and excess maize gathers aflatoxin in the North Rift the government is still “strategizing” on how to respond.
On a trip round Turkana County early this week (a hot and dry area 800kms from Nairobi) my eyes were opened to the plight of the residents and children in this area. Scorched hills and miles and miles of sand as you drive through. Small homesteads with barely clothed children peeking from behind poorly makuti constructed manyattas will not escape your notice. The rain gods have failed again.... At that particular moment, it struck me; stark reality was staring right back at us! What seems to be eluding attention at the moment is how a serious food shortage would impact on the education for the millions of Kenyan children across the country, both in urban and rural poor, which form the bulk of pupils and students in our schools.
Food is as important a component for successful education as are books and uniforms, if not more important, and shortage spells doom for the child; both the urban and rural poor. Arid areas with poor road network will be worst hit. For example going to school will not be as important as finding pasture or those wild berries and roots to keep hunger pangs at bay. There is likely to be a higher incidence of child labour as many more are forced out of school to look for water and pastures for the livestock. Schools will empty as the dry hillsides look more attractive. And for those strong enough to stay in class, concentration will plummet as hunger bites.
The situation will not be any any better in those shanty schools in the urban slums either, where parents eke out a living on less that 1 USD/day. The debate on whether to buy that plate of ugali and sukuma wiki or pay for that all important tuition fees will not need much figuring out, food’s importance cannot be understated. As parents tighten belts to survive the harsh economic times education will be easily immolated in favour of food and survival. More children will stay out of class and run around the shacks, or worse, turn to cattle rustling in the pastoral areas while at the Coast and many urban areas prostitution and thuggery will reign supreme and anything else to earn any income.
The impact will however not be restricted to basic education. The lucky beneficiaries to national and provincial schools might be forced to contend with a school fees hike as food prices go up; not that the schools will have much choice. While the government has capped the boarding fees in secondary schools at Ksh 4344/term, there is no perceivable way the schools could manage to feed the students when the price of maize flour hits Ksh150/2kg bag. The bleak reality is that this cost will be passed to the parents as extra boarding fees and other charges in Term 2, dues which the schools have to collect religiously and then defaulting earns you a trip back home. In the past, parents have welcomed such increases with diffidence, forcing schools to operate under miserly budgets. I am refusing to imagine what serious food shortage would do to boarding schools; we have all too often seen the food riots in different parts of the world.
While many might be celebrating at having earned those coveted places in National school, it will still be worth noting how many of these students’ families will raise the money to pay the fees, given that these might be anything between Ksh 60,000 - 90,000. With an increase in cost of living, there is no telling how far these could rise.
Food shortage would put at great risk the gains made in the educational sector for the last 2 years; it would especially adversely affect enrollment and retention of children in primary schools, and will as well. Perhaps this early on, the ministry of education should consider staking a bigger interest in strategy and planning on how the Kenyan school child can be best cushioned from a drought. In the long run, policy formulation should rather be anticipatory geared towards preparedness than reactionary as the latter has proved unsustainable in past instances.
Last time the country faced a crisis of this magnitude the government put in place feeding programmes in primary schools and despite their praiseworthy impact especially on enrollment and retention of children in schools then, these seem to have been a short term measure; a spot check in public schools will reveal that feeding programmes have been suspended as food is no longer being received from the government except in North Eastern, Upper Eastern and Turkana Pokot Regions and the rations are too small to sustain the increased enrollment till Term End. Not that this is the official position. It would be a great call to increase these rations as a permanent solution is being considered. The lackadaisical approach to this matter is unsettling indeed; let not the Kenyan child suffer for the government’s lethargy in policy.
