The Fountain of Knowledge at the University of Nairobi. Most Students don’t read beyond the outlined courses. SALATON NJAU

Prof Egara Kabaji recently argued that scholars, especially university students, are not feeding the government with ideas that can change lives.
I second the professor on that. A man embroiled in darkness cannot lead his immediate colleague to the light.
University students have failed in their duty. Many are sycophants of powerful leaders, following them blindly, not scrutinizing their ideologies. They turn a blind eye to problems in society. They are politically unconscious, if not dead.
They wait under the scorching sun in rallies for hours only to be fed with prevarications. We have many ideologically unprincipled leaders whose ideas are far fetched.
The few students who vie to be student leaders, where do they get the finances to buy booze for their comrades as they solicit for votes?
They mostly get finances from politicians. How do you expect them to criticise the same leaders when they do wrong? They cannot raise a finger to the ones who feed them.
They are being taught how to hold the spear and any rebellion could be termed as insolence and lack of gratitude. The others who don’t vie shout all over about whom they are supporting, just like their cohorts in the villages. There is little to expect from such minds.
A student born in Kinangop, Nyandarua County (food rich country) who grew up and studied there, then went to Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, is unlikely to think of solutions to help his dying brothers in Turkana.
Such students have not faced any hunger; they do not know how it feels to miss a meal for a couple of days. You cannot expect a man whose stomach is full to think of researching on how his country brothers will plant millet. The fellow will just doze off in satisfaction.
On the admission of university students, students from western Kenya should be sent to the coastal areas. Those from central Kenya should take their brains to Nyanza. This way, they will experience the difficulties of life in different parts of the country and they will come up with ways of addressing the calamities. Many will learn different tactics of survival.
Research
Many students don’t do research at all. Take-away assignments are done at the last hour (thanks to goggle and Wikipedia, otherwise many would never graduate.) There is quick reading the night before the CATs and the main exams.
Libraries will be full whenever there is an exam or an assignment. Many stream to the libraries to access internet, mainly for downloading entertainment stuff. That’s not bad. But it’s killing the reading and researching culture.
They don’t read beyond the outlined courses. From that reading, I bet there is no sound helpful idea that can be generated to help the 40 million Kenyans.
We expect things to be done but don’t take the initiative ourselves. My lecturer says that “we are like those fishermen who wait for fish to come back from Uganda so that we can have a meal, or those who follow a chicken for a whole week around the bushes waiting for it to lay an egg.”
Githu Mwangi is a student at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology