#EndPovertyinKenya

In a quest to make Kenya's poverty a thing of the past

Education makes the son of a miner to be the manager of miners. In its quest to eradicate poverty in Kenya, the World Bank should ensure that every Kenyan child gets good education. Education empowers; its makes one's self esteem soar high. As Chinua Achebe once said, “ A child who has washed his hands is fit to dine with kings”, an educated child will confidently stand in front of elites and in the most polished accent say, “You know what people? I am educated!” In other words, education enables one to interact with bigwigs thereby becoming more exposed to brighter ideas about poverty eradication.

It is sad that Kenyan children who are slow learners are looked down upon. They are pressurized to get good grades to join universities. There is an ingrained mentality that University graduates make up the cream of the society. Any child who exhibits a keen interest in non-academic abilities is quarreled for wasting time doing things that will compromise their future. They therefore get into a hot pursuit of being the best in class. The World Bank could educate Kenyan parents that talents also have a place in prosperity. Were the likes of Usain Bolt, Bill Cosby and Mike Tyson subjected to gun-point cramming so as to make it to college, the world wouldn't know them. The World Bank should therefore set up talent centres where a child's natural abilities are honed.

The World Bank should shun corruption in Kenya. It is unfortunate that not all the donations from international well-wishers find their way to the intended hands, but into pockets of corrupt administrators. A story is told of two political science students; a Kenyan and a Chinese who graduated from a USA college and went home promising to visit each other after ten years. It coincidentally happened that the two became ministers of Roads in their respective countries. The Kenyan visited China and was awed at the sleek Pajero packed outside the Chinese compound. “ Where did you get this?” he asked. Smiling the Chinese answered, “ You see that tarmac road there?”Pointing at a tarmac road nearby, he added “ The Pajero is 10% of the road's allocation.” The Chinese visited Kenya. He was stunned to see 10 Pajero SUVs packed inside the Kenyan's garage. “ Where did you get all these?” he asked. The Kenyan said, “ You see that bush there. The Pajeros are 100% allocations of a road that was to lie there.” The two were corrupt but in China a road was constructed while in Kenya, a bush stood!

The World Bank should engage us in more poverty eradication discussions in Kenya. As soon as this blog competition was announced, you should have seen the number of youths who took to Facebook and wrote brilliant ideas about how poverty can be ended. You should have read the awesome blogs: Owen's blog, Liz Ekak's, Natalie's among others. Though we were all lured by the probability of flying to Washington DC and shaking hands with Jin Yeong, the blogging competition got us thinking. You only needed to look at the ideas raised and you would say, “ Kenya youths are finally thinking. They are thinking outside the box. No, in fact, they have destroyed the box!”