~ Ekamais' World ~

By Ereng Ekamais Austine In his pursuit for the greatness of South African community, the great anti-apartheid icon of South Africa- Nelson Mandela in one of his greatest speeches once said , ” Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world “ .Perhaps, the words of this wise Pan-Africanist icon and liberator has found a place in my heart. Today he is very right. No wonder today South Africa has the best universities in the whole continent of Africa. While it’s very true (even for the Numbskull) that education is the only solution to both mental and material poverty that still imprison my people up to date, my conscience has been restless ever since when I see academic performance in my County schools deteriorating. The fact that leadership and the key stakeholders in Turkana still treat Education as an option up to now is worrying. This is why my pen will not hesitate to write, this is among the many reasons why I developed passion in writing - to brin...

 In Francis Imbugas 1976 play, Betrayal in the City, the Kenyan playwright and literature scholar describes life in the fictitious, dystopian, post-colonial state of Kafira. One of the characters, a university don jailed for speaking his mind: "We have killed our past and are busy killing our future". As I write this, Turkana community is descending into abyss of despair and despondency. The so-called schooled sons and daughters of its soil have worsened it's hopelessness. In some not distant past, I have had an opportunity to move into remote corners of Turkana County especially the pastoral kraals. Apart from the usual observations about lack of this and this, there was clear evidence  (at least from the actions, talks and thoughts of these people)  that they are wiser than those we traditionally consider to be learned, informed and with that golden chance of residing around towns  places believed to be sources of information, power and government largess. This obs...