FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR:
KARUA, MUTUA, KALONZO AND KIMUNYA - ARE LEARNED, EDUCATED OR SCHOOLED?

    Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:31:10 +0000 (GMT)
 
Could some be very kind to help me understand this:
 
What is the value of education? Why should we take so much trouble to study for as long as it is practically possible? Some study for 10 years, others 14 years, 16 and for some their studies last for over 18 years. I am puzzled  and tempted to drop my PhD studies if what am seeing and hearing from our 'learned' leaders would be the end result of my education.
 
Hons. Karua, Kalonzo, Kimunya and Mutua have been uttering extremely questionable statements that do not reflect the ordinary expectation of learned people.  Hon. Karua is dying with the position that the law of the land must observed if the current crisis facing our beloved country is to be conclusively determined. Fair enough. But wouldn't someone who has considerable education differentiate between following the law and following the spirit of the law? I am not a lawyer but what happened between the tallying of the presidential votes and the wearing in of Hon. Kibaki demonstrates a situation where law can be used to turn an act of injustice into a justified act under the same law. The fact that tensions were high, doubts lingered and clouds of confrontation formed at KICC, would have suggested to a learned person in matters of law that something is a miss. How then, can one trust the same custodians of law who used it to do "the right thing" to file a petition that would be chaired and challenged by the very same custodians? Is knowledge of law superior to other professions in terms of interpretation of reality? Is the invocation of law all that matters in life even when stakes are so high?
 
Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka has maintained that he is 'neutral' and only took up the VP post in order to reconcile Kenyans. I find it very difficult to place this statement in any scale of logic. What sort of knowledge is applied in this type of thinking? Is that law? And wouldn't anyone learned realize that there are other intelligent people out there? Or are we all tomatoes to be addressed in this kind of thinking? Don't we deserve statements reflecting that Kenyans have learned citizens?
 
Alfred Mutua leaves me extremely embarrased if at all, as am told, he has a PhD in media and communication. If indeed this is the case, then I must point out that he seems to have a deficiency that undermines his credibility in media. Public Relations, no matter which books Mutua read, is set on the premise that people must be given what they deserve. There isn't any work of media that risks a person's life except in criminal activities that undermine the common good. It is only in meeting people's needs that one can be able to do political propaganda. Any sort of public relations utterance that demeans people, lies to people, downplays people's feelings and frustrations, sees nothing but a loosing enemy is indeed an indicator of a person who has no background whatsoever in that field. Why should 'a learned' person toy-play with a situation that has caused death?
 
Kimunya emits a degree of immaturity, which is understandble, but also absolute determination in defending a position that he doesn't seem quite capable of grasping its consequences. He seems to fight for the short terms gains that are only too apparent in his conscious. The problem is Kenya has an inter-dependent economy that as minister for finance he should defend. I can understand if Michuki uses force to do whatever he wants because he grew up in a generation that didn't have much education and after all he has been bossing people throughout his career. But how can young people like Kimunya be so insentive to the broader needs of all Kenyans? Is this a result of a particular system of education or is it an individual's inborn inability to see beyond the immediate good?
 
The question is: Should we insist on educating people when those who are supposed to have been to have been succesfuly educated are underperforming especially at a crucial hour? Can't we scrap education after all? What do we stand to loose?
 
I am aware that there are a few ODMers who have very contradictory statements but in all fairness the PNU side is worrisome in its utterances.
 
Elias Mokua Nyatete