The newly wedded Pastor Beatrice Kamau has attacked President Mwai Kibaki on the question of free Primary Education in Kenya (also known as FPE). She said that the Kibaki government was using the program for political propaganda even though facts on the grounds indicate that the Program had failed.
“Although free primary education increased participation in the beginning, it created many problems because the Project was unplanned”, she said. She said that both the teaching and learning facilities had been greatly constrained during the introduction of the system which, she said, was done in a hurry for political reasons.
“The speed with which the system was implemented resulted in congestion of class rooms while disparities also exist when it comes to teacher-pupil ratios”, she told KSB. The Pastor said that the failure of the system is based on the fact that thousands of schools are understaffed because prior to the introduction of the system, the critical question of logistics was ignored by the Kibaki government.
“Many Primary schools in Kenya are understaffed and this situation has led to a reduction in the quality of Primary education in Kenya because teachers cannot cope”, she said.
She warned that President Kibaki should stop using the issue of free Primary education for political propaganda because the system had failed. She said that during the second year of implementation of the Project, there was a clear reduction in the inflow of pupils in Primary schools.
“Districts that had recorded 20% increase in new pupil enrollment had reduced to less that 5% at Standard one enrolment in 2003”, she said. She said that lack of facilities and teachers for a smooth implementation of the system were well known by the government which was now trying to portray the Program as having been successful. She said that government officials who are telling the public that the Program had succeeded were, in reality, protecting their jobs because they were afraid of Kibaki’s government.
HEAVY DEPENDENCY ON FOREIGN FUNDING
Warning President Kibaki further, Pastor Beatrice said that whatever the Kibaki government was portraying as “success” in the Program was funded by money from foreign governments.
“We cannot say that the Program has succeeded when it is largely dependent on hand outs from foreign governments”, she told KSB.
In 2003/04, the World Bank pumped in Ksh 3.7 billion, the British government Ksh 1.6 Billion, OPEC Ksh 1.2 Billion, the Swedish government Ksh 430 million, UNICEF Ksh 250 Million among other interventions to fund the Program.
Pastor Beatrice told KSB that while the idea was good, its planning was catastrophic. She said that no government worth its salt could embark on such a huge Project without enough and adequate room for a “transition period” that would put into consideration all factors needed for success.
“The current Program is well beyond the national budget and as long as the cheating Kibaki government continues to tell Kenyans that the Program was successful, the government continued to lie to its own people”, she said.
She said that Kenyans should wake up and vote out the Kibaki government because it had proved that it was incapable of bringing change in Kenya.
She dismissed the government’s assertion that the economy had improved, saying that any improvement in the economy had been in the interest of the rich in Kenya and not the poor.
“Living standards in Kenya continue to go down, prices of essential commodities continue to rise, unemployment in the country has reached over 60% while many Kenyans were faced with starvation so where are the benefits of a growing economy?”, she posed.
“What has increased in Kenya is corruption, tribalism especially in the appointment of public servants, nepotism, rule by the Mafia, inflation, embezzlement of public funds, insecurity, human rights violations and political gangsterism, not the economy”, she told KSB.
The Pastor was concerned that President Kibaki was using the issue of free Primary education and promising Kenyans free secondary education in his election campaigns when it was the tax payer’s money being wasted.
“Kibaki has somehow personalized the issue of free education as if he is fundinding the Project from his own pocket”, she told KSB. “This should not be the case”, she added.
She advised Wakenya to “open their eyes” instead of being cheated in broad day light that Kenya was doing well when the truth is that the country is being torn to pieces by self-seekers and political opportunists who are out to enrich themselves by persistently looting public coffers.
Okoth Osewe
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