Ruto’s graduation aids varsities to foster national values

Christmas season is a moment of moral reflection and regeneration.

As some 2.4 billion Christians, out of about 7.2 billion human population, prepare to celebrate the 2018th birthday of Jesus Christ, the world is sliding into a profound crisis of values.

In Kenya, 2018 was marred by a string of mega-corruption scandals, spine-chilling murders and other heinous crimes, revealing a serious breakdown of national values.

This was a serious setback on Kenya’s aspiration for a value-based social order, immortalised by the National Anthem, itself a solemn prayer that expresses the aspirations of the founding fathers to anchor the new Kenyan nation on the immutable values of justice, unity, peace, liberty (human rights and freedom), prosperity, patriotism and hard work.

The jubilee administration’s real legacy is national unity and integrity based on solid national values — understood generally as accepted principles, beliefs and traditions that define both the good, desirable and useful as well as the undesirable and unacceptable.

It needs no gainsaying that national values are the soul of nations and civilisations.

In Pharaonic Egypt, the elevation of justice into the highest value gave us the iconic Scale of Justice that now symbolise the rule of law, human rights and principles of good governance.

In ancient Babylon, Hammurabi collected national values in a code with a very clear sense of good and bad, emphasising justice as the highest value and setting out physical punishment of the perpetrator.

In Ancient Rome, Marcus Tullius Cicero is remembered for his principled and brilliant fight against corruption and bribery that rocked the Roman Republic.

In Kenya, as elsewhere, the decay of values reflects a parallel crisis of capitalism, the worst ever, everywhere exacting a heavy toll on national values and creating dysfunctional societies.

Kenya’s millennial generation is the most affected by the crisis.

Like its global counterparts, it has fallen into what the Anglican priest Frederick Donaldson, once described as the “Seven Social Sins”: Wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; commerce without morality; science without humanity; worship without sacrifice; and politics without principle.

In our age of knowledge, the university in Africa has a major role to play in promoting a value-based society where leaders, as well as ordinary citizens, lead a life of integrity and respect social order.

This week, three events demonstrated the role of the university in creating a cohesive nation based on solid national values.

First was the University of Nairobi’s 60th graduation ceremony officiated by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday, and where Deputy President William Ruto graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Plant Ecology.

Ruto joined a special class of African leaders to ever achieve a PhD while in office or before clinching national leadership, including Professor John Atta Mills of Ghana (1944 — 2012).

By maintaining a delicate balance between a hectic schedule as Deputy President and research over a period of six years, Ruto demonstrated the values of hard work; perseverance; devotion; dedication and sacrifice as part of our national heritage.

The event also highlighted the need for national leaders to respect institutions and the regulations governing them.

Naturally, Ruto, who enrolled for his doctoral studies in August 2012, would have liked to graduate in 2016 before the heady 2017 election.

He worked patiently to meet the requirements of the University.

On the graduation day, he was seated by 7.00am when the event started, and patiently sat with his classmates, chatting and taking ‘selfies’ as they waited for the conferment.

Despite being the second in command, when President Kenyatta arrived to officiate the event, Ruto stayed put and calmly on his seat.

He stood patiently in the sun in an academic procession of 99 graduands as he waited for his name to be called before he walked to the podium for conferment of his degree.

During the event, President Kenyatta underscored the mission of the university to “produce academicians who impart knowledge to create cohesiveness … a united and prosperous nation”.

The second event was the “Stakeholders Forum on National Values and Principles of Governance” held at Kenyatta University, my alma mater, to which I was a guest speaker on December 18, 2018.

The event was part of Kenyatta University’s commitment to promote national values.

And as the Vice Chancellor, Prof Paul Wainaina, a philosopher and educationist, noted the institution has used diverse platforms to create awareness of these values among its students, staff and other stakeholders.

These include the appointment of a national values committee, which has undertaken activities to create awareness and spearhead the mainstreaming of national values in the university and conducted a nomination to identify and recognise national values champions within the university.

The third development points to the need for the university to help resolve the moral crisis facing Kenya’s young people.

Recently, President Kenyatta appointed the 91-year old former vice president Moody Awori to be in charge of the Sports Fund, sparking outrage online as young Kenyans accused the President of reneging on his promise to include youth in his government appointments.

The president subtly dismissed young people in Kenya as thieves who cannot be entrusted with public funds, arguing that older men will prevent cartels from stealing the money at the Fund.

This stoked the ire of young people in social media, feeding into the acrimonious debate on the moral disposition of the millennial generation.

We need to support the universities and the education system to be useful instrument in building a moral society.

Prof Kagwanja is the Chief Executive of Africa Policy Institute and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya.