The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has taken to twitter to threaten students who engage in “criminal act” of dire consequences. In a tweet with pictures of students on strike; the DCI warned all students from Primary, Secondary to tertiary institutions that they are, “archiving & profiling every criminal act & consolidating charges that may be preferred to each & every student involved in any crime” complete with the hashtag #IFIKIEMASTUDE.
You know we have lost our way as a nation when we start using institutions that nub criminals to threaten children.
This is not the first time we are having a wave of student unrest leading to lose of property and in isolated incidents-loss of lives. In fact, in the 10th Parliament, former Central Imenti MP, Gitobu Imanyara rose on a point of order to seek a ministerial statement on countrywide unrest in secondary schools to which the then Minister for Education, Prof. Sam Ongeri responded that he will give a full report but that it was common during the mock exams period.
It’s interesting that this response was given in July, 2008; exactly 10 years ago and remains the standard response by government to date. The idea here is that the students are the problem.
In a journal article titled, Hypotheses of Student Unrest, the late Seymour L. Halleck, M.D. (Sy) says “…we must listen to what young people are saying not just how they are saying it.” What the government through the ministry of Education and the DCI are doing is listening only at how these students are expressing themselves but not what they are saying.
|
