By Dr Fred Okeng’o Matiang’i
I want to speak plainly, without anger and without drama.
I served as Minister for Education during the presidency of Uhuru Kenyatta.
That record is not disputed.
Under President Kibaki, free primary education was introduced and sustained. At one point, even Bill Clinton publicly acknowledged Kibaki as the African president he wished to meet because of that policy. That is not propaganda. It is history.
By the time the next administration took office, those children were already in secondary school. The responsibility was simple: move them forward, not abandon them.
We went everywhere — Narok, deep rural villages, remote communities — with County Commissioners and education officers. The instruction was clear: Every child must be in school.
Let me say this from experience:
Kenya has enough money to educate every child.
The problem has never been resources.
The problem is leadership.
When children were in school yesterday and are out of school today, that is not a system failure.
That is a governance failure.
Today, excuses are made — CBC, committees, structures. But excuses do not educate a child.
Give us government, and we will return every child to school.
We will fund it.
We have done it before.
Hospitals today lack medicine.
Roads are stalled.
Children are sent home.
Yet billions pass through State House every year.
So Kenyans must ask honestly: Where is the money going?
If intimidation, police force, and goons are the strategy, then there is no strategy at all.
Respect matters — yes.
But respect goes both ways.
This country does not belong to individuals.
It belongs to the people.
The needs of Kenyans are bigger than the ambitions of any one leader.
The United Opposition is a house with many rooms. Leadership will emerge at the right time, through the right process.
Even civil servants know the truth.
They have not failed — public service has been stripped of dignity.
We are not foolish.
We are not asleep.
We understand the numbers.
We understand the national mood.
There is no path to re-election through failure.
When change comes, it will not be narrow.
It will be decisive.
Until then, we will speak calmly, firmly, and truthfully.
Kenya must go on.
Dr Fred Okeng’o Matiang’i
