TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF KENYA: CAMPUS POLITICS & GETTING GOONY.
During weekdays, especially when cats and exams are approaching, this first Technical University situated right in the midst of Nairobi city is always on a calculated moving mode. Stories of haggardness and laxity are a history during such moments, in fact people are always busy and doing quiet movements until you can hardly notice it save for some noise as a result of some construction or vehicle movements.
Passing the message
Things are however very opposite during politics time. For the past years, things have hardly been different. During such times, more so two to three days towards voting day, the school will be almost full to capacity. Learning comes to standstill and only chanting here and there between the corridors. It is in these moments when people become goony in the name of political fanaticism. Propagandists get a good chance to propagate their propaganda. You could be seated in a remote corner somewhere and the talk could be not far from who is winning and who is investing their hard earned cash in vain. The quiet “dudes and chics” throughout the year get their chance to shriek and shout in the air to make sure their voices reach the taxman at Times Tower and the banker at Central Bank of Kenya to try and remind them that the comrade is seriously deliberating on who to give the top seat. When the shouts get more serious and highly pitched, the comrades want to make sure someone at the Anniversary Towers gets to know that comrades’ power is not dying any soon. At such times the Cabinet Secretary of education, the parliamentarians, the office of the D.P and that of the president are expected to know that the comrade is yet to cast the vote and that soon or later, if things go wrong, their peace will be at stake.
The goons
You are not wrong to say that being goony is not necessary being a goon but we are talking of real goons here. A goon according to my dictionary is a thug; a usually muscular henchman with little intelligence (also known as a hired goons). These are the people who are hired and paid to disturb the peace of the comrades. Sources trustworthy say that these goons are hired and instructed to harm competitors of the hirer to other extents. Things like hospitalization of the contestants are common courtesy of these goons. This kind of animosity exists mostly between the top seat contestants especially those of the Chairperson and those of the Secretary General. It is believed the competition can be so tight until those who are thought to cause the stiff competition “disappear” literally. When things become so hot and unbearable, getting physical between supporters of the contestants is common and pronounced. Goons take this opportunity to cause harm and destroy property. I hope the future holds brightness for campus politics and acts of goons will disappear.
Tribal divisions
Campus politics is not different from the national politics. I will not be wrong to say that the campus politics is a copy paste of what our leaders out here do. Tribal divisions become very pronounced and versatile during campaigns period. In notice boards, it is very common to find tribal notices here and there which are called in solidarity and support for the contestants from such tribes. Mostly people take little time to understand the contestants’ manifestos and their characters and support them on the basis of tribes only. And this is the new generation we are breeding and molding to the nation out here.
It is my hope that campus politics will undergo a revolution-change for the better and shape our national politics out here. This is the new generation of leaders tomorrow and if we keep investing in them the rotten morass of evil minded and goony characters, then we are not doing our country any good.
End.