Education CS Dr Fred Matiang’i has in the past few weeks caught a lot of flak over the fires in schools.
The CS has been caught between powerful cartels and school principals who want to hear nothing of his directive on the education calendar.
Those opposed to Matiang’i say he has arbitrarily changed the school calendar without consulting the stakeholders but the CS insists key players in the sector were consulted.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Matiang’i attributed the wave of arson attacks on schools to frustrated students over failure to illegally access national examination papers.
But in a country where politicians from the opposition have been bashing the CS and pushing for his resignation, none other than Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o has come out to defend him.
In a Facebook post last night, Prof Nyong’o who is currently in Poznan, Poland for the 24th World Congress of Political Science said corruption in the education sector was fighting back.
He said, “On the matter of the now rampant school fires. There is no doubt that they do not originate in the schools themselves. An evil cartel of selfish people, in and out of government, penetrated the education system to corruptly benefit from the FPE education project funded by British Govt.”
He added that Matiang’i was unlucky to have been caught up in the melee.
“CS Matiangi's attempts to clean this mess is being sabotaged by this cartel under the guise of school fires. It is very expensive to society when corruption fights back.”
Unfortunately, Nyong’o stands out from his party leader Raila Odinga’s stand that the national crisis engulfing the education sector was due to strict measures imposed on schools to curb exam cheating.
On Wednesday, Raila said the measures were imposed without adequate consultations, isolating students and teachers.
On Tuesday, Matiang’i said he had information from the police and head teachers that students had already paid for exam papers which were to be leaked to them but teachers who abet cheating had been unable to procure the tests after the government dismantled the cartels which used to distribute them.
In the statement sent to newsrooms on Wednesday, Raila said the new education policies were designed to fail since they went against the advice of teachers.
"Besides, students are feeling unnecessarily targeted in the so-called war against cheating. There is no justification whatsoever for non-candidates to stay at home during exams and for candidates to sit exams without the benefit of having access to their teachers in between the papers," read the statement.
With KNUT and Kuppet pushing for schools to be closed, it seems that Matiang’i is a beleaguered man and if he caves, anarchy will reign in schools since arson attacks have become an annual thing since 2005.
Already, some groups have started forming in support of Matiang’i saying all schools cannot be closed when it is just a few elements who are spoiling the party.
It is yet to be seen if the CS will cave in and order the schools closed or if court appearances by those accused will deter the madness that has hit schools.