The spate of unrest and school fires that have recently been experienced in Kenya have left the education stakeholders confused. The people tasked with running schools have been unable to find the course of the fires, with some suggesting that it might just be that teachers are burning down schools due to work related stress. This theory has been going around but has now been proved wrong after PostaMate uncovered the cause of the fires.
The cause of the fires has nothing to do with teachers, exams of Covid-19 related stress. It has everything to do with Safaricom.
Since Safaricom started celebrating 20 years of existence, their running slogan has been ‘Twende Tukiuke’ which literally means ‘Go and rebel.’ They have put it on billboards, online ads, banners and anywhere there is space. The message has been for Kenyans to go and rebel.
It is this message that has caused unrest in schools all over Kenya. Students have heeded the call to rebel and now dormitories are going up in smoke and headteachers are being expelled. It is the chaos that Safaricom has fanned with great success.
While the message was meant to help Kenyans rebel against an oppressive government, it seems that only students picked the message and the results are devastating. Safaricom does not take responsibility for the mess but hopes to run the slogan until the 2022 General Elections.
Twende Tukiuke
