By Joshua Nyamori
(Joshua Nyamori is a lawyer, social-economist, social justice activist and a former Student leader at Maseno University)
Congratulations to Ann Mwangi Mvurya for being elected the President of SONU recently.
Those who appreciate how rough and tough students union elections are must understand that the new SONU leader is no ordinary lady.
To the young Ann, I want to urge her to quickly settle down and appreciate that a huge task that has been bestowed upon her shoulder.
Together with her team, they should know what it is ailing their comrades, the UoN and the country at large. Whatever they decide to do while in office is all up to them.
They may decide to see the new power they have acquired today as something to be wielded for its own sake; to satisfy something in their own egotism or to acquire for themselves the fruits of power.
In this, they will have wasted a rare opportunity that few are privileged to get. They may also decide to see the power they have acquired as something to be used for purposes of minor and immediate adjustments in SONU and the University.
They may thus see the state of the university and the country at large as a moral phenomenon to be accepted in all its fundamental respects and only pursue adjustments in terms of obvious points of inefficiency and in respect to the particular pressures of students’ discontent.
In this case, they will assume that the existing social framework in Kenya is sound and reasonable; but more importantly, just ‘is’ in the sense that it exists.
Thus, beginning with complete acceptance of the status quo, they will view the university and Kenya in an essentially superficial way and the question they will ask is: ‘How can the university and Kenya be made a little better?’
They will be conscious of points of pressure, seeming to be conscious to students’ discontent and seeking, in response to such pressure, marginal adjustments in the organization of the union, the university and Kenya for the purpose of relieving the discontent and removing the points of pressure amongst students.
In this context, they will interpret and construct their new role in the acceptance of the university and Kenya in the simplistic character of tribes and classes, as many of us do, and will not believe or want the current power relations in the union, within the university and the entire country to alter.
They will be contented with tinkering once in a while to placate restive students and the public.
Finally, they may decide to be idealists who seek to arrange a fundamental change to entrench the role of the SONU and the students in promotion of academic freedom, intellectual growth, economic development, rule of law and the administration of justice in Kenya.
To do this, they must begin by rejecting existing social relationships in the union, the university and the country at large and seek to construct a model of how the SONU, UoN and Kenyan society should be ordered within the context of the new constitutional paradigm.
If they decide to follow this third route, they must be concerned with the basic legal and administrative changes that are necessary to effect a total transformation of not only SONU but also UoN and the Kenyan state at large.
I hope they pick up the challenge and pursue their dreams of a better life for students and society at large.
To fellow former student leaders including Moses Oburu, Hassan Omar, Joseph Kioko, Ndolo Wosango, Fwamba Nc Fwamba, Cyprian Nyamwamu, Dan Isaac Onyancha, Josiah Omotto, Patrick Onyango Paddy, Okong’o G. Omondi, Kepta Ombati, Hanningtone Kataka, Field Marshal Boaz Waruku and many others, let us support this new student leader and her team to succeed.
Let us offer them a chance to build their individual and institutional capacity and share with them experiences of our success and failures, our wise decisions and mistakes, to enable them to build on good models and avoid the pitfalls that we may have fallen in.