Kenya’s Illiteracy Rate

I was reading the Nation yesterday and saw that the illiteracy rate in Kenya now stands at 40%! I should not have been shocked by that number, but I was. Kenya used to have one of the highest literacy rates in all of Africa. I believe at one point, it was around 80%. I want to blame someone and that someone is Moi (I had to get that out of the way and I will now move on).

As I was thinking about this rising illiteracy thought, I began to realize that “My Kenya” is not the real Kenya. It is the Kenya of the middle and upper-middle class. When I think of most, if not all of my friends..they for the most part come from this “Kenya”. We all went to good schools in Kenya, a majority have college degree’s, many have graduate degree’s, none of us ever went without food. They may have been occasional financial problems (because Kenya is full of drama & they’re always these highs and lows), but the basics were always taken care of.

So, this high illiteracy rate basically means that parents do not have money for school fee’s. Even with the free primary school education, a lot of parents just don’t have money for books, uniforms, pencils or whatever and their kids are not going to school. Then of course, even if you’ve been attending school sporadically (depending on when your parents can come up with the fee’s) there comes a point where, if you miss out on the basics, your not going to be able to do well on those national exams and it creates this vicious cycle: You flunk the national exams, which means you won’t be able to get into a university, you don’t have the money to leave the country or pay for a parallel degree program and your basically screwed.

Why I am talking about this illiteracy issue? Because I am running into more and more Kenyans in America who are thinking about moving back. Some are honest and are willing to admit that America is simply too competitive for them. You get to a point in your career where you begin to realize that you are not going to be a “star” and a lot of believe that if they can’t be “stars” in America, they still have a chance to become a “star” in Kenya because the competition is a lot less intense, but is it? I read statistics like these and it reaffirms my belief that you cannot separate yourself from the wider environment in which you live!

A friend of mine was telling me about a cousin of hers who moved back to Kenya to try and start a call center. He used the guest room of his mother’s house as an office and had actually managed to get a few clients before Telkom Kenya cut of his internet service (they accused of him of running an illegal business) — I don’t think he’d registered it, but in a country with such high unemployment, you’d think the government would be willing to work with these kinds of entrepreneurs. To make a long story short, the guy was forced to move back to England.

Now get this: The founder of Kencall/Kenya also run into problems with Telkom. His internet service was also disconnected. However, he went to school with Kibaki’s son’s and he used that connection to get the service restored (although I’ve heard his gone bald from all the stress) and I think this guy went back with a few million dollars!!

I’ve always wondered where the Africaonline guys would have been had they just stuck out in America.

Tell me what you think (tell me, tell me)

Share on Facebook