Arts and crafts of Magna, the emergence of pseudo-elitism

It’s strange that most mwikos (cooking sticks) used by Kenyans in the United States (US) and Europe are imported from Kenya. And from our supermarkets.

In the past mwikos were never bought. Boys made them at home. Occasionally we took them to school as part of arts and craft. 

Beyond mwikos, we made other things like scarves, combs, ladles and many other items used at home. We weaved, crocheted and used pieces of broken glass to smoothen mwikos. 

It’s strange how things keep turning around. Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) or is it Competence-Based Education (CBE) want us to go back to the basics, and teach children how to make such items.

Remember the joke on scarecrow? We made that too, but there were wild animals to scare. What do you scare today? 

How many youngsters can make a mwiko? Why did we forget such arts?  Incidentally, one man still makes and sells mwikos near Magína on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway, just before Kijabe and past Kimende. Stop by and admire his work.

Today, the thinking is that whatever you want is available in the supermarket. And if not, just import. 

In addition to making tools for use at home, we made toys. I did not know until I came to the city that toys can be bought. I was equally surprised that private tuition existed.

I wondered why a child in Nairobi would need private tuition, yet they were idle most of the time. No farming, no fishing, no weeding, no feeding or grazing cows, and water was available from the tap, not the river. We used firewood,  not cooking gas bought from the shopping centre. 

My thinking was that without such chores, Nairobians would focus on books and everyone would be number one! But I later learnt technology was a disrupter; TV, radio and later video games. We played real games involving our muscles like wrestling.  

Nairobians did not want to work and still don’t want to. The rural folks work for them, including bringing up children. That has consequences.

The next generation may take things for granted and lack the work ethic of the earlier generation who immigrated to the city.

It gets more interesting. Since they can’t compete with rural folks in hustling, Nairobians are more likely to rely on their parents to get jobs through “connections.”  

They may not call that corruption. They argue that the rural folks don’t know about these opportunities and are not prepared. 

That denies rural folks opportunities to apply their cherished work ethic in formal employment. That slows down the economy as intrinsic motivation is lacking in “connected employees.” Will CBE put Nairobi and rural folks on par? Will meritocracy flourish through CBE?

Devolution spawned “Nairobilets” with counties becoming centres of new elitism or pseudo-elitism.

Whether it’s A-Level or 8-4-4, the rural folks have been on the receiving end. Will CBE change that? Nairobian, nimewaonea?