THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA
FRIDAY, 14 MARCH 2003
My fellow students, Administrators, distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen great is my honour and great is my appreciation for having turned up to witness the inauguration of S.O.N.U. leaders. Thank you so much for choosing to be with us at the threshold of a new era in the University of Nairobi.
Ladies and gentlemen allow me to proceed directly to my maiden speech. Campaigns are over; the time for sloganeering is well behind us, what is needed today more than ever is the constructive application of our minds and our hands to establish a reputable students union. We are at a critical time not just in our University but in the whole country as gales of change sweep away the incompetence of the past regime. Obsolescence awaits us if we fail to change with the times.
University of Nairobi that was once an institution of hope, an oasis in a desert of intellectual poverty, has over the years steadily but systematically been brought to its knees by improper management, corruption, outright looting, ineptitude, misprioritisation and an arena for selfish experiments.
Accommodation facilities are dilapidated, our libraries are lacking in terms of stocks no wonder today students write term papers and indicate newspapers such as ‘Daily Nation’ as their references instead of ‘journals’. Facilities vital for research such as microscopes, computers, cameras etc are either in bad shape or are missing. Most disturbing my dear comrades is the lack of a clear strategic plan to gear this great institution from the dark. Let me not attempt to list all our problems because they are obvious knowledge and neither is this the place nor do we have the time to elucidate on all vagaries that affect our stay in this University. It is in the face of the above gloomy scenario that leaders of our unshakable party S.O.N.U. have boldly resolved to launch a strategic plan in order to recapture the glory of University of Nairobi, regain its identity, self-confidence of its students and put the University back on the path of becoming the best learning destination in Africa. We in the near future are summoning all needed skills such as prediction, identification, innovation, evaluation and decision making so that we engage our seven step approach to developing a strategic plan. The first step will be a strategic profile to establish the position of University of Nairobi now and contrast with where it ought to be.
Other steps will include environmental dimension, strategic forecast, Resource evaluation, strategic alternatives, test of consistency and finally strategic choice. We challenge the entire university community be they workers, administrators, students and even our friends to assist to the best of their abilities so that our efforts can coalesce into a clear strategy. S.O.N.U. ought to be a fusion of talent and ability.
We are aware comrades that a strategic plan is useless if no mechanisms are adopted for implementation and continued review or assessment of how well objectives are being made. We seek to break away from the tradition of the past where S.O.N.U was viewed as a festering wound which becomes inflamed during the electioneering period and is followed by empty and insincere declarations of intent by the administrators that are followed just for a while with short lived policing and soon the frenzy winds down and life assumes its dangerous routine. I pledge my self-commitment that in a span of four weeks, S.O.N.U plan of action is launched so that our unshakable union begins to dissipate heat evenly and equitably to those who have failed this great institution.
We demand politely, state firmly that in the dawn of a new era, S.O.N.U is moving away from a reactionary style of management to take up its real position in policy formulation. Once complete the S.O.N.U strategic plan will constitute a bold and imaginative attempt to launch war on endemic problems that have trapped and immobilized University of Nairobi. S.O.N.U strategic plan I envisage will offer at once a full-blown development strategy and a detailed program of action so as to consolidate and deepen the recent gains on student voice in the University.
To avoid the post implementation reaction S.O.N.U is to establish a strategic surveillance mechanism to be known as Efficiency Monitoring Unit. Beginning next week, S.O.N.U student complaint file will be opened in the following offices:- Medical Centers, Students Finance Office, All Principals Offices and all SWA Administrative Units. Time is gone comrades when people worked without appraisal. The Efficiency Monitoring Unit (referred to as Select Probe Committee in S.O.N.U Constitution) will collate and collect views of the complaints and table the report to the students’ parliament.
Deliberations shall be made and decisions arrived at. Allow me to state that Never, Never, and Never again will S.O.N.U engage or be seen to be engaged in witch-hunting. All we are saying is that because of our gift of intelligence, the opportunity and privilege of being at the University at this time then it behoves all of us to question, doubt, suspect, inquire, as and demand for appropriate answers and responses. Due to financial constraints and general scarcity of resources those found to be less efficient shall leave us. Remember comrades that towards the end of our year in office we shall reward those who have worked diligently given the conditions.
Towards this end I call for the sending of the Director Sports on compulsory leave pending investigation. Without a coordinated Sports Calendar and proper attempts to stimulate students to realize their talents in other disciplines, I refuse to be persuaded that the Director of Sports has been working. In the same vein the positions of wardens in the halls of residence must be quickly abolished as we have evidence that those charged with responsibility have not been working and some have never even made an attempt to work.
To survive and thrive S.O.N.U must be responsive to those it serves. We made pledges during campaign because we believed we could manage our affairs better than our predecessors. Time is now that we made real of this belief. S.O.N.U is a vanguard of change, a voice of the voiceless and hence it must be registered with the Registrar of Societies. Our Legal Affairs Secretary has been mandated to seek registration and the best I can say is to advice or warn the government whichever is appropriate that no one should slacken this process because it is our constitutional right to associate.
We are also aware that Student Centers as well as some tuck shops have been taken over by some administrators; we thank them for their creativity but remind them that time is up. Once constituted the Investment Committee will provide guidance of when to leave with maximum speed and minimum delay.
Most of the Council members are here with us today. Let me remind then that the era of oppression is over. Make no mistake a Student Task Force is to be formed to review those rules that have in the past gave the Senate and the Council unchecked superiority and unquestioned authority.
We are determined and committed to go full throttle even if it requires amendments through parliament. I wish to give notice of amendment of University of Nairobi Act 1985 so that our unshakable Union is embodied in the Act. We intend to deny anybody the luxury of banning and suspending our unbwogable Union to mask their own failures.
Allow me to send our message directly to the government of the day. It is the dawn of a New Era and we, as students feel neglected if our concerns are not addressed. Soon we intend to convene a National Student Conference here in Nairobi. We shall just as it happened in Parliament appoint a Student’s Commission to review our allowances from the Higher Education Loans Board. Following the precedent of our members of parliament, we are confident that the Commission will recommend a quick increase. We shall table this report to relevant ministries and we also wish to give notice that sufficient space be reserved for us in parliament during the Budget Day because we shall be in the Public Gallery to celebrate the increase of allowances. As concerns this best I can say comrades is that waiting is exciting if you know what the outcome will be.
My second agenda to the government is that they move fast and depoliticize universities. We are tired of musical chairs. The society today is a very critical one and is expecting people to justify their being in office on merit, and University of Nairobi is no exception. As comrades we refuse replacements of Moi sycophants with NARC sycophants. We refuse the excessive pressure on our excellent administrators to mutate into NARC appendages. We know and regrettably so that most if not all our administrators are slaves of a nobler class whose wishes they execute without fail. (Read Ecclesiastes 5:8).
Thirdly and lastly the government must through the ministry of National Reconstruction allocate funds to enable the completion of many white elephant projects in this University. The white elephants are a mark of failure of the MOI regime but sooner they will become a mark of insensitivity of the present regime.
Ladies and Gentlemen, None is so miserable as a man who wills everything and can do nothing. Allow me to refocus our thinking to the libraries. Since education is the premise on which the existence of a University can be justified, we have resolved to take a pragmatic approach.
The Vice Chairman Academic Affairs has pledged to ensure that S.O.N.U Book Requisition Forms are availed in each of the libraries by the start of next week. At the end of each month, the Faculty Congress Committee shall collect those forms and through a statistical methodology arrive at books that ought to be bought. S.O.N.U promises to undertake any conceivable means to ensure that such books are bought even if it means a hunger strike. We have no time to negotiate about provision of knowledge. S.O.N.U proposes that the Library Committee meets as soon as practicable to ensure a quick transition from the tedious and dusty manual catalogue to an ultra-modern computer facilitated online public access catalogue (OPAC). Students of this University who are indeed the major shareholders also demand that the library subscribes to established academic search tools. EBSCO host databases offer tools such as Academic Search elite and Business source premier that will allow us access to journals and libraries of sister universities. I also expect immediate provision of CD Rom databases, Video viewing, and audiocassette listening to be provided in our library just as they are in USIU. Most of us are mesmerized when we visit libraries of other universities in this country because you feel like you have traveled from the past into the future.
Let it be known that we are not willing to compromise on our academic demands comrades. Ladies and Gentlemen until we discover the role of education in transmitting culture and knowledge across generations and adopt a student centered, consensus driven and a participatory strategy in keeping the University focused on academics then our legacy, our academic diplomas, degrees and astronomical levels of wealth in the hands of a few as evidenced by sleek imported Mercedes Benz cars, and what have you, will forever remain ornaments telling us more of our pseudo-stupidity than progress.
S.O.N.U cannot afford the luxury of being excluded from the information revolution. Towards this end I am calling on volunteers and donors to help us realize the dream of having S.O.N.U Website in two weeks time. We also seek help so that at the end of next month S.O.N.U be able to resume publication of the monthly student magazine “Comrade”. We intend to make that magazine a vital, useful, and important tool of communication.
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen, Allow me to thank all those who catapulted me into leadership. It was tough and difficult and our burning conviction of what is right could not have carried us through were it not for your continued support and encouragement. Comrades, I have no way of thanking each of you individually but I believe the best gift to all of you is the service I shall offer while in office.
Needless to say comrades a good consul without a good fortune is a windmill without wind. To my fellow elected leaders’ congratulations, to those who gave us stiff competition thank you for making it an election and not coronation. To the election supervisor and his team thank you for taking on the most difficult job. Even with the obvious flaws I believe that the election results were a manifestation of students wish. In my leadership, I promise to carry on like minded opinion shapers as long as our relationship is based on mutual commitment and a shared responsibility geared towards service to our customers.
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen unlike in the past leadership where S.O.N.U has formed inconceivable partnerships with the government, administration and opposition parties.
The dawn of a new era demands a product of indigenous efforts of students determined to convince skeptics and pessimists in Kenya and beyond that we can and have become architects of our own destiny, offering our own student methodology towards solutions of the myriad problems we face. It is the dawn of a new era and I wish you all the best as you seek to realize your hope and prayer to leave campus in the whole harmony and trinity of intellectual maturity, moral uprightness and emotional balance.
Finally comrades I believe my speech will not be complete if I do not offer advice. To the lecturers; lecture, to Administrators; administer and to whole of us; let us remind each other daily that the warped reasoning to resort to violence to prove intellectual superiority just proves otherwise. Though the philosophy of violence is fortified by the assumption that all too often it has brought power and wealth to brutal and ruthless men it will never diminish the fact that violence is essentially the mark of a weak mind.
Asanteni Sana.
There is light at the end of the tunnel and if there is not, we are in the wrong tunnel. Let us find our tunnel.
FRIDAY, 14 MARCH 2003
My fellow students, Administrators, distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen great is my honour and great is my appreciation for having turned up to witness the inauguration of S.O.N.U. leaders. Thank you so much for choosing to be with us at the threshold of a new era in the University of Nairobi.
Ladies and gentlemen allow me to proceed directly to my maiden speech. Campaigns are over; the time for sloganeering is well behind us, what is needed today more than ever is the constructive application of our minds and our hands to establish a reputable students union. We are at a critical time not just in our University but in the whole country as gales of change sweep away the incompetence of the past regime. Obsolescence awaits us if we fail to change with the times.
University of Nairobi that was once an institution of hope, an oasis in a desert of intellectual poverty, has over the years steadily but systematically been brought to its knees by improper management, corruption, outright looting, ineptitude, misprioritisation and an arena for selfish experiments.
Accommodation facilities are dilapidated, our libraries are lacking in terms of stocks no wonder today students write term papers and indicate newspapers such as ‘Daily Nation’ as their references instead of ‘journals’. Facilities vital for research such as microscopes, computers, cameras etc are either in bad shape or are missing. Most disturbing my dear comrades is the lack of a clear strategic plan to gear this great institution from the dark. Let me not attempt to list all our problems because they are obvious knowledge and neither is this the place nor do we have the time to elucidate on all vagaries that affect our stay in this University. It is in the face of the above gloomy scenario that leaders of our unshakable party S.O.N.U. have boldly resolved to launch a strategic plan in order to recapture the glory of University of Nairobi, regain its identity, self-confidence of its students and put the University back on the path of becoming the best learning destination in Africa. We in the near future are summoning all needed skills such as prediction, identification, innovation, evaluation and decision making so that we engage our seven step approach to developing a strategic plan. The first step will be a strategic profile to establish the position of University of Nairobi now and contrast with where it ought to be.
Other steps will include environmental dimension, strategic forecast, Resource evaluation, strategic alternatives, test of consistency and finally strategic choice. We challenge the entire university community be they workers, administrators, students and even our friends to assist to the best of their abilities so that our efforts can coalesce into a clear strategy. S.O.N.U. ought to be a fusion of talent and ability.
We are aware comrades that a strategic plan is useless if no mechanisms are adopted for implementation and continued review or assessment of how well objectives are being made. We seek to break away from the tradition of the past where S.O.N.U was viewed as a festering wound which becomes inflamed during the electioneering period and is followed by empty and insincere declarations of intent by the administrators that are followed just for a while with short lived policing and soon the frenzy winds down and life assumes its dangerous routine. I pledge my self-commitment that in a span of four weeks, S.O.N.U plan of action is launched so that our unshakable union begins to dissipate heat evenly and equitably to those who have failed this great institution.
We demand politely, state firmly that in the dawn of a new era, S.O.N.U is moving away from a reactionary style of management to take up its real position in policy formulation. Once complete the S.O.N.U strategic plan will constitute a bold and imaginative attempt to launch war on endemic problems that have trapped and immobilized University of Nairobi. S.O.N.U strategic plan I envisage will offer at once a full-blown development strategy and a detailed program of action so as to consolidate and deepen the recent gains on student voice in the University.
To avoid the post implementation reaction S.O.N.U is to establish a strategic surveillance mechanism to be known as Efficiency Monitoring Unit. Beginning next week, S.O.N.U student complaint file will be opened in the following offices:- Medical Centers, Students Finance Office, All Principals Offices and all SWA Administrative Units. Time is gone comrades when people worked without appraisal. The Efficiency Monitoring Unit (referred to as Select Probe Committee in S.O.N.U Constitution) will collate and collect views of the complaints and table the report to the students’ parliament.
Deliberations shall be made and decisions arrived at. Allow me to state that Never, Never, and Never again will S.O.N.U engage or be seen to be engaged in witch-hunting. All we are saying is that because of our gift of intelligence, the opportunity and privilege of being at the University at this time then it behoves all of us to question, doubt, suspect, inquire, as and demand for appropriate answers and responses. Due to financial constraints and general scarcity of resources those found to be less efficient shall leave us. Remember comrades that towards the end of our year in office we shall reward those who have worked diligently given the conditions.
Towards this end I call for the sending of the Director Sports on compulsory leave pending investigation. Without a coordinated Sports Calendar and proper attempts to stimulate students to realize their talents in other disciplines, I refuse to be persuaded that the Director of Sports has been working. In the same vein the positions of wardens in the halls of residence must be quickly abolished as we have evidence that those charged with responsibility have not been working and some have never even made an attempt to work.
To survive and thrive S.O.N.U must be responsive to those it serves. We made pledges during campaign because we believed we could manage our affairs better than our predecessors. Time is now that we made real of this belief. S.O.N.U is a vanguard of change, a voice of the voiceless and hence it must be registered with the Registrar of Societies. Our Legal Affairs Secretary has been mandated to seek registration and the best I can say is to advice or warn the government whichever is appropriate that no one should slacken this process because it is our constitutional right to associate.
We are also aware that Student Centers as well as some tuck shops have been taken over by some administrators; we thank them for their creativity but remind them that time is up. Once constituted the Investment Committee will provide guidance of when to leave with maximum speed and minimum delay.
Most of the Council members are here with us today. Let me remind then that the era of oppression is over. Make no mistake a Student Task Force is to be formed to review those rules that have in the past gave the Senate and the Council unchecked superiority and unquestioned authority.
We are determined and committed to go full throttle even if it requires amendments through parliament. I wish to give notice of amendment of University of Nairobi Act 1985 so that our unshakable Union is embodied in the Act. We intend to deny anybody the luxury of banning and suspending our unbwogable Union to mask their own failures.
Allow me to send our message directly to the government of the day. It is the dawn of a New Era and we, as students feel neglected if our concerns are not addressed. Soon we intend to convene a National Student Conference here in Nairobi. We shall just as it happened in Parliament appoint a Student’s Commission to review our allowances from the Higher Education Loans Board. Following the precedent of our members of parliament, we are confident that the Commission will recommend a quick increase. We shall table this report to relevant ministries and we also wish to give notice that sufficient space be reserved for us in parliament during the Budget Day because we shall be in the Public Gallery to celebrate the increase of allowances. As concerns this best I can say comrades is that waiting is exciting if you know what the outcome will be.
My second agenda to the government is that they move fast and depoliticize universities. We are tired of musical chairs. The society today is a very critical one and is expecting people to justify their being in office on merit, and University of Nairobi is no exception. As comrades we refuse replacements of Moi sycophants with NARC sycophants. We refuse the excessive pressure on our excellent administrators to mutate into NARC appendages. We know and regrettably so that most if not all our administrators are slaves of a nobler class whose wishes they execute without fail. (Read Ecclesiastes 5:8).
Thirdly and lastly the government must through the ministry of National Reconstruction allocate funds to enable the completion of many white elephant projects in this University. The white elephants are a mark of failure of the MOI regime but sooner they will become a mark of insensitivity of the present regime.
Ladies and Gentlemen, None is so miserable as a man who wills everything and can do nothing. Allow me to refocus our thinking to the libraries. Since education is the premise on which the existence of a University can be justified, we have resolved to take a pragmatic approach.
The Vice Chairman Academic Affairs has pledged to ensure that S.O.N.U Book Requisition Forms are availed in each of the libraries by the start of next week. At the end of each month, the Faculty Congress Committee shall collect those forms and through a statistical methodology arrive at books that ought to be bought. S.O.N.U promises to undertake any conceivable means to ensure that such books are bought even if it means a hunger strike. We have no time to negotiate about provision of knowledge. S.O.N.U proposes that the Library Committee meets as soon as practicable to ensure a quick transition from the tedious and dusty manual catalogue to an ultra-modern computer facilitated online public access catalogue (OPAC). Students of this University who are indeed the major shareholders also demand that the library subscribes to established academic search tools. EBSCO host databases offer tools such as Academic Search elite and Business source premier that will allow us access to journals and libraries of sister universities. I also expect immediate provision of CD Rom databases, Video viewing, and audiocassette listening to be provided in our library just as they are in USIU. Most of us are mesmerized when we visit libraries of other universities in this country because you feel like you have traveled from the past into the future.
Let it be known that we are not willing to compromise on our academic demands comrades. Ladies and Gentlemen until we discover the role of education in transmitting culture and knowledge across generations and adopt a student centered, consensus driven and a participatory strategy in keeping the University focused on academics then our legacy, our academic diplomas, degrees and astronomical levels of wealth in the hands of a few as evidenced by sleek imported Mercedes Benz cars, and what have you, will forever remain ornaments telling us more of our pseudo-stupidity than progress.
S.O.N.U cannot afford the luxury of being excluded from the information revolution. Towards this end I am calling on volunteers and donors to help us realize the dream of having S.O.N.U Website in two weeks time. We also seek help so that at the end of next month S.O.N.U be able to resume publication of the monthly student magazine “Comrade”. We intend to make that magazine a vital, useful, and important tool of communication.
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen, Allow me to thank all those who catapulted me into leadership. It was tough and difficult and our burning conviction of what is right could not have carried us through were it not for your continued support and encouragement. Comrades, I have no way of thanking each of you individually but I believe the best gift to all of you is the service I shall offer while in office.
Needless to say comrades a good consul without a good fortune is a windmill without wind. To my fellow elected leaders’ congratulations, to those who gave us stiff competition thank you for making it an election and not coronation. To the election supervisor and his team thank you for taking on the most difficult job. Even with the obvious flaws I believe that the election results were a manifestation of students wish. In my leadership, I promise to carry on like minded opinion shapers as long as our relationship is based on mutual commitment and a shared responsibility geared towards service to our customers.
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen unlike in the past leadership where S.O.N.U has formed inconceivable partnerships with the government, administration and opposition parties.
The dawn of a new era demands a product of indigenous efforts of students determined to convince skeptics and pessimists in Kenya and beyond that we can and have become architects of our own destiny, offering our own student methodology towards solutions of the myriad problems we face. It is the dawn of a new era and I wish you all the best as you seek to realize your hope and prayer to leave campus in the whole harmony and trinity of intellectual maturity, moral uprightness and emotional balance.
Finally comrades I believe my speech will not be complete if I do not offer advice. To the lecturers; lecture, to Administrators; administer and to whole of us; let us remind each other daily that the warped reasoning to resort to violence to prove intellectual superiority just proves otherwise. Though the philosophy of violence is fortified by the assumption that all too often it has brought power and wealth to brutal and ruthless men it will never diminish the fact that violence is essentially the mark of a weak mind.
Asanteni Sana.
There is light at the end of the tunnel and if there is not, we are in the wrong tunnel. Let us find our tunnel.
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