Those familiar with the truth say a society that banks on people holding “great” certificates imagining they have the arsenal, but instead are loot hoarders with little or no understanding of public good, will soon tell you that adopting such attitude spells doom.
Quality university rankings consider, among others, impact of research, interaction with students, link between research and industry, and funding for various programmes. This is directly tied to who teaches at these universities.
Can Kenya be left safely in the hands of its PhD holders and professors as challenges keep getting more complex?
Many of this class of scholars have little to offer except systemic paper-deep international connections or multiagency experience and claims of writing this paper and that under the guise of consulting for organisation A and B.
Have the elite experienced a moral burnout and are now itching to access huge perks, especially in government, at the expense of pursuing the truth? Where is the sword to defend the truth they were awarded during graduation?
The learned are dangerously inclined to using the mortar-board to exploit every available opportunity while leaving the ageing, the sickly, toddlers and people with disability about whom they write endless papers in perpetual mode of want.
These people have nowhere else to turn to after their little earnings have been gulped by PhD holders and professors who attained their qualifications using resources from the same vulnerable taxpayers.
Hospital visits no longer yield much because their managers have turned their coffers upside down. Talking about the recent scandals tied to Covid-19 procurement in government in which more than Sh8 billion could have been lost is the freshest example of how people use their degree papers to get jobs but ignore the same when it’s time to manage and lead.
Well, change, it has been said, is the only constant. However, how come reforms in Kenya are not yielding much and the learned are always caught with pants down, hands in cookie jar?
For how long shall Kenya remain in this rut of policy reforms, be it in education, health, police, environment, name it? Kenya keeps talking about loopholes in policies; rarely do citizens feel the impact of the good parts of same policies.
For example, politicians, backed by PhDs, are now asking to change the Constitution before Kenyans can feel the impact of the 2010 Constitution that was endorsed as ground-breaking. Why have the ‘educated’ people taken a back seat and become docile when they should ask their employers to make good use of the few good policies in stopping looting?
The educated, it turns out, study the law not to understand it. No. The “acclaimed” experts study the law to manipulate and manoeuvre the codes with abandon to benefit a small clique who claim it’s their turn to eat. They forget it is their role to help the rank and file feel the impact of national resources, national good, national pride, national peace.
The society invests heavily in education to check against the malevolent spirit of theft, mindlessness, and ignorance, but, sadly, the same ills manifest with abandon even when the number of PhDs and professors is rising in both enrolment and graduation. The rank and file are ululating across Kenya when their kin achieve academic goals without realising that the same people will either keep quiet when looting goes on or are the architects of mismanagement.
Professors and PhDs are either missing in action or have found a comfortable perch from which they are enjoying tilted perks or their degrees were conferred without regard for ability and insights.
A country can’t decline right before the noses of supposed intellectuals who keep claiming political will is lacking. It’s their duty to deliver the flawless formula that will in turn give birth to the elusive political will.
To conduct research, and to engage in empirical study is to solve problems and enlighten society using solid examples. Unfortunately, these have been blown away by the strong winds of financial and material want at a time taxpayers are desperately looking for scholars to speak with authority tied to courage, facts, figures, consultation, collaboration and more research.
Every time, there is looting, either at private or public entities, the usual ‘solution’ is to ‘automate’, ‘digitise’, and altering structures to allow multiple audit layers to send alerts when when looting is taking place.
Come on! Is this not confirming that universities awarded PhDs or professorship to the wrong candidates whose education did not convict them to do honest public service? What works is conviction that good education should provide.
Are these PhDs and professors featherweight?
Kenya, telling from the sad faces of taxpayers, is frustrated by the slumber of professors. While the academe is supposed to read, teach and do research, the true test of their degrees may not be in the lecture halls. The best education is in finding practical solutions to bridge the gaps of knowledge in our society.
This is why Kenyans usually celebrate when the country reads elaborate CVs of a professor coming in to head a critical State agency or parastatal dealing with issues such as transport, education, counterfeits, standards, health, anti-corruption — name it. Across the board.
Sadly, the joy of getting ‘the most qualified’ chief, Ivy League graduate is usually short-lived. After months, it is a trail and chain of scandals. Again, across the board. Why are PhDs and professors not causing trouble in the push to sway them, sway their organisations, and sway Kenya?
Let’s face it. PhDs are very protective of their academic achievements because they should have earned it. It was no thrown at them as confetti. But, why are they developing clay feet when it comes to doing the right thing? A well-educated person is a watchdog.
The world is increasingly becoming a rugged terrain and Kenya ought not to continue groping in the dark alleys while paying heavily to send people to school and award them higher degrees. Given the global trends, it is time we took a keener interest in the spirit of inquiry and the need to stimulate and facilitate the highest standards of academic excellence aimed at providing practical answers.
The spirit of inquiry plays a critical role in gathering, analysing, and disseminating scientific solutions. Unfortunately, a considerable number of PhDs often have little idea about what research is about, much less the urge to do it.
It is understandable to claim that universities no longer have adequate funding. But it is under similar circumstances that Prof Arthur Obel, in spite of controversies, created a name in the study of HIV in Kenya. He developed Kemron and Pearl Omega, saying the medications could tame the virus.
Davy Koech, now the CEO of Centre for Clinical and Molecular Sciences, a professor of immunology and molecular medicine, is credited with founding Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) in 1979.
The two professors modelled positive initiatives which though were inconclusive have been recognised internationally for chiselling the path for those who came after them with the same interests.
There are more in other fields, but their number is insignificant. What are the rest doing apart from moonlighting from one university to the next?
While it can be a daunting task to commit to a cause when you are poorly funded, prudence require starting small before breaking into big ticket projects. Without a doubt, those whose who do good a job can never be ignored, American comedian and author Steve Martin has said.
Sometimes, you feel professors and PhDs should apologise for the poverty of the peasant population in Kenya whose sons and daughters the same university teachers are releasing into the world with half-baked degrees that cannot solve the simplest puzzles like the ever-fresh joblessness.
Harry Petsanis says there is no shame but great empowerment that comes from acknowledging we did not know everything, neither did we have all the answers, and that upon realising we were wrong, we take the step to improve.
Kenya, a country of rich heritage, beautiful geography, rich culture, history, and an ever-evolving diversity, needs renaissance. And PhDs are challenged to commit to providing an academic mode that will benefit Kenyans and the world today and tomorrow.
It is the best way to achieve the mission for which you went to school.
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