That Class Below the Middle Class

This world, like they say, is full of ironies. I am a waiting graduate and I have lots of worries about my future. Being who I am and where I am from is reason enough for me to worry. I am from the background below that they call the middle class, and I am not as lucky as the middle class is. First, Kenya universities, the public ones, are not enough so the country does not provide, or rather is not able to cater for the needs of all of us. This means that you have to get a private university to move on with life just like everybody else. The only problem is that in this beautiful country of ours, employers do not value private universities as much as they do public ones. Still, they value people from Western universities better than local ones. This is what Bob Marley was talking about when he said that we need to “emancipate [our]selves from mental slavery”. Valuing foreign colleges is an assumption that this great land of Kenya is not able at all to give a decent education like any other country around the world. Though they may be ranked in the thousands, our own universities give as much as any do. The only difference is that those that are ranked highly may have more resources and age than ours. That therefore disqualifies university ranking. The criteria used to rank them is unknown to any layman and is unrealistic in the sense that they may look at how much research your university has done, but I wish they could take their time and look back in time to see how the same universities were doing when they were as old as ours. I have nothing against Harvard, Oxford, nothing at all. I am only jealous that somebody from these places is bound to get a job right from under my nose, even though he got a second lower degree and I a first class.

I am not even as lucky as those who might be considered after the “prestigious” institutions. After “eating my future” in high school, like my high school principal, Mr Kariuki, M.A., used to tell us, I could not get a way to the public universities in this beautiful country of ours. Due to their number, the cut-off points were WTC high. Furthermore, I came, or rather come, from that class I have already mentioned above. This meant that I had to get myself a place at our private universities, whose paper is not valued at home. These universities are usually for those in the middle class and the rich. Mr Kariuki used to say, “Continue eating your future but when the future comes, you'll have nothing to eat”. My future had come and boy oh boy, I had nothing to eat. I started a computer course in a local college, and all my hope was gone. When you start this short course training programs, you are usually at the point of no return. Your parents have tried all they could do, but unfortunately, that was all they could manage to get you. A month passed in that college of ours, two months remained. Now, I do not know how it happened but Mama managed to get a friend to talk to who talked her about me going to Uganda for my studies. Word was that it was way cheaper; that you could school three of your sons there and still not be as stressed as one schooling a son in a Kenyan university. I could not wait when I heard the good news. I abandoned my course and got into a bus for Uganda, the land of many wonders. I was briefed that in that country where a president would rule a country full of kings and queens, I had to attend two more years of A level because their system of education was different from ours. I did and as we speak, I have managed to finish my degree and I am waiting for graduation.

But a point that I should not forget to mention is that in this country too, though education be cheaper, public universities are also 'limited' and I do not know what keeps following me (fate?). I have been attending a private university. That is the root cause of my worries. As I type this article in the Main Hall, I secretly pray to who I believe in, that someone may read my story and give a job when I am out of here.

In Kenya, like already stated, Western universities are ranked first, then public ones, and lastly private ones. The public ones, also stated, cannot absorb all of us and that does not make anyone who does not attend them a fool. Though I also stated that Uganda has cheap education, those of us in the class below the middle class do not know the meaning of that saying. As a matter of fact we spend a fortune to get that degree that an employer looks at with disgust written all over his face. Our government promises job creation; I remember it used to say 500,000 jobs in a year. If I go to the job market and fail to get myself one, should I go home wondering why? Should I probably think that I was the 500,001^th person? It is still too early to complain. I am a teacher by training and our system is always said to have a shortage of teachers. I will try when I get there and if I do not, I will write you and tell you about it, maybe you might help.