MY EXPERIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

It has taken me ages to do an update in here but here i am.
This day (Monday, 29/09/2014) may have not started very well. Having woken up very early in the morning, a friend of mine was supposed to assist me to do data analysis for my MBA Research project only to realize that we could not successfully complete the regression analysis bit due to a mistake in that could be avoided if my supervisor or the defense panel would have been more keen.! Before my hard disc explodes, let me speak out. This has been the journey. Walk with me…..

In here, I have been pursuing an MBA with a bias in Human Resources Management. This is an eighteen unit course plus a research project but I decided to take an extra two to make them twenty, being twelve common course units, four specialization units in HRM, another four in Strategic Management and then take a research project in the field of HRM. A Major and a minor..? Not really. There is no such a provision at this level but for someone who is knowledge hungry, this was a nice delicacy especially the Strategic Management Specialization units.  It is worth noting that life in a public University is completely different from that in private universities/institutions that I had previously attended. The classes are big and student lecturer relationship not very well managed. We had classes that had almost 250 students which only made the situation worse.

How I joined The University of Nairobi and the struggles therein.

In the Last few months, close to completion of my higher diploma classes, I applied for admission for MBA at the The University of Nairobi. Before this application, I said a prayer and told God that if this application will be received and approved, then He will provide for school fees and if it is not His will, then let this application not be approved. After sometime, I received a text confirming that my application had been approved. In my bank account, I had less than thirty thousand shillings and the fees for the first semester was  Ksh 99,500 meaning that I had a deficit of over sixty thousand that my payslip could not raise as I had already overburdened it with the Undergraduate and Post graduate diploma studies Loans. I hence started to wonder where I would get the remainder of the cash since I was to start the classes within the next one month. I begun approaching my friends in Nairobi especially those who we had assisted each other financially in the past but none of them was willing to assist me with not even a single penny. One day I left for the village and tried to share with other friends including a church leader who used to invite me for Church Fund raising among others hoping that they would lend me but none of them was willing too. I gave up and left for the Kerugoya-Nairobi stage so as to board a matatu back to Nairobi have failed in my mission.

Before paying for my ticket, an auntie of mine came across my mind hence I left immediately and boarded a matatu to a place called Kangaita. I got there and shared my problems with her and by the grace of God, she promised to send me Ksh 50,000 but after requesting his ‘children’ as this was to be loaned from a family fortune that she held in trust. I talked to my cousins and this was approved hence come Monday, I had Ksh 50,000 credited to my account. This loan would later cause me pains as I realized that the approval was a bait as my cousins later demanded to be given a share as an ‘outsider’ had benefited from this kitty and there was no way for them not to be given a share.

 However, God continued to open more doors and by the end of the same week, my younger brother loaned me another Ksh 20,000 hence adding the total to sum to over Ksh 100,000 ready for my first semester. I was still worried on how I would raise the money to pay back the loans and raise enough for the second semester but God provided this too!  From a small Kerosene business that a friend of mine and I run in the village plus the little I was earning by then, I was able to repay them.  God continued to provide in the subsequent semesters. Apart from increased allowances in my pay slip that were back dated, the only large amount I can remember exactly where I got from was Ksh 140, 000 which was from higher education loans board. I must admit that the rest was a miracle and I was able to pay all without being out of class not even in a single semester due to lack of school fees. In all this time, I got to learn that if one involved God in his/her plans from the word go, then He will stand with him/her all trough until the project is successfully completed. This is well captured in Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. I can surely testify of God’s beyond expectations provision as in this course, I did not only complete my studies in record time but even got a bonus as I was able to specialize not only in Human Resources Management but took extra units in strategic management with ease as I said above. I experienced the faithfulness of the Lord first hand and surely, I choose to live for Him. Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. True to these holy words I was done with my class work by August 2013.

The research project process, the ups and downs.

After I was done with class work, then came time to start my research project. Supervisor allocation took ages as I was not allocated one in 2013 only for this to be done in 2014 and when it was done, I was allocated a Professor as my supervisor. The experience with him was a great one as he is the type that walks one down the path of research work with ease, love and total professionalism. The only bottle neck was that he was a busy man as he used to supervise both the MBA students and PHD students too not forgetting that he had other duties outside supervising research projects. Securing time with him could be a nightmare at times and required a lot of patience especially factoring in other engagements that he also had in the University. However I  was able to do Chapter one to Three (Research Proposal) and finally, it was time to defend the proposal after months of printing copies of the proposal, making corrections again and again but with one goal in mind, trying as much as it is reasonably possible to graduate by December 2014 God willing. With this goal in mind, all that was left was total prayers and working round the clock so as to beat the deadline but I found solace in Proverbs 16:9 In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

The project defense took place but to be frank, it fell short of all that I expected compared to my Undergraduate experience at KCA University that I can say was simply awesome as the students owned the whole process and the panelists were just facilitating the whole process. At University of Nairobi, the experience was different and the absence of my Supervisor from the panelists made me feel vulnerable and true to my worries it was not an experience to be proud of. I successfully defended it but had to remove some variables from my proposal as per the directive by the panelists who never gave the students the conducive environment to express themselves and just take them through what they had prepared in the project proposal. With no option left, I had to surrender to their guidelines lest graduation remained a mirage. A research project is one of the requirements that can keep one from graduating for years due to frustrations that comes with the whole thing. I guess it can only be fair to call it a necessary evil. Some students had to pay thousands of money for someone to do the project for them to a tune of Ksh 50,000!

Correcting and complying to the defense panel recommendations was another tall order since i had to reorganize my proposal a fresh but I thank God that by 25/08/2014, my proposal correction form was signed hence a go ahead to collect data.  This was simply another tough part as my experience with field work in the past projects was a headache. I had to break for a period of around two weeks just to relax and re energize so as to face the task ahead. By the mercy of God,0n 06/09/2014 a friend of mine assisted in printing my questionnaires that were totaling to 200 hence giving me a good push towards preparing for my Chapter four and five, that is Data collection, Analysis, Presentations and Recommendations. This friend of mine by the name Sammy is a real treasure as he had been assisting me throughout my under graduate to post graduate studies. From helping me purchase a laptop, a printer, repairing my Laptop when infected by viruses, fixing software issues and many other IT related problems that minus him, my journey to higher education could have been more difficult and expensive than it was. I thank God for such humble friends who I can proudly say that they were God send.

Monday 08/09/2014 marked the day that I started collecting data for my MBA research project. Collecting information from police officers can be one of the hardest tasks one can engage in but with divine favor, it all started so well and the most amazing thing is that I got a 90% response rate. Glory be to the most high for being so good to me as the respondents treated me so well, were so willing to take part in the research project hence the remaining bit which is coding the questionnaires, imputing data into a computer,  analysis, presentation of findings and recommendations. The process of coding and data input was a whole new experience especially where a large number of questionnaires are involved. This made me appreciate those who are usually involved in doing such work daily as this was not a joke! 

This may have cast some insight as to why students willingly cough up to Ksh 50,000 to avoid these hustles.  The most heart breaking thing (To those interested in quality education) is that most of graduates/professionals have certificates whose content remains alien to them. Why do I say so? Some start from copying exams but this does not end there since the research project now exposes the rot in institutions of higher learning.  As previously indicated, it costs up to Ksh 50,000 for one to be assisted in taking the research project. One just procures the services of research companies who ask for a down payment, a research topic   and work begins. This is a very well organized affair as the student picks the document from the research company, presents it to  the supervisor, corrections are agreed on and then he/she takes it back to the out sourced party who does the corrections and the whole process continues till the research project is done! The defense panels may be one of the biggest let downs as this vice can be detected or minimized at this level if the student is tasked to take the panel through the whole paper but the ‘bully’ mentality in most panelists makes it this worse.  The defense is hurriedly done, panelists dominated and to say the least, a big joke!

This may be the reason why most organizations have employees at managerial levels who simply hide behind their Cvs, are bullies, the subordinates do all the hard work, the bosses do the reporting and submissions and take all the credit. I can only imagine how terrible it is to work under a person who bought his/her way into management simply because the CV was well drafted,  one is well connected, slept his/her way up to the top  or used other ‘digital’ short cuts that most apply to get where they are. No wonder most ‘successful’ people cannot tell ‘the how’ in terms of the journey they walked to get where they are but only say that they hustled their way up!

An interaction with Hr Professionals through a Face book page revealed that most of us have the papers but lack the ‘human’ side at work, may be because they never underwent the mental pain of doing it but only the financial pain. From bullying those who ask questions, those who err, those who ask ‘simple’ questions and all manner of what I would personally call un called for made me question whether we really acquired our current positions through merit, whether the recruitment panels did a job that can stand the test of time or where things really went wrong. Someone who attended classes consistently, did the Cats and the assignments by himself/Herself, did the research project from the word go, defended it professionally, went to the whole hustle of data collection up to the final document can do better than this hence I personally think that employers should do more than they are doing to ascertain the real value of an employee and that research projects and thesis should be presented at one point or the other during the interviews.

Why do I say this? Organizations are entities that experience problems whose cause need to be well researched, a review of how other organizations facing similar challenges solved them done, an analysis of the available data to establish the trends, presentation of such findings and recommendation for possible solutions done. I personally believe that one must be conversant with research process even if at managerial levels so as to competently interrogate such papers when presented by various departments. Back to class work, I also realized that team work was also missing as five member group assignments were done by two or three members but the document presented like it was done by all. Some members found it difficult to send in their registration numbers for inclusion in the final document despite the fact that they never took part in doing the  task /assignment (after all, ‘Degree ni harambee) the saying was.  Others submitted their individual contributions to group assignments that were poorly researched, just downloaded from the internet even without editing! Some of these were men and women who head big companies, have very flashy gadgets, put on designer  outfit but I never dreamed of working under any of these! This may be one of the reasons why there is a serious disconnect between industry and higher education beyond the obvious. Either way, this is Kenya where the ‘how’ never matters but the ‘where’ is what is really valued. One can cut as many corners as is reasonably possible to get where he/she wants to go. How do I pray that the otherwise happens!

My personal experience is that I need to own all that I claim to be mine. As in I need to work my way to where I need to go, assisted by other people in a professional way, need not to buy my way up but remain patient, professional and self driven however long that will take! From undergraduate studies, my post graduate diploma and in the Mba classes, attending the maximum number of lectures, timely submission of my assignments and sitting in for my continuous assessment tests without compromising them has been my driving force (except one time that I tried to carry a mwakenya but could not even read the contents as I was sweating, shaking and was confused for over one hour without even writing my name on the answer sheet and in panic mode  is  may have left it in between the answer sheet, submitted it that way and left praying that it was not discovered as this meant disqualification from the University!) The worry was that I was not able to copy, the paper could have been discovered and  I would have  been disqualified and from that day I chose to sit for my papers and even when I failed I sat for supplementary exams  with courage as I knew that I failed but some  ‘passed’ but copied everything. From that day till the results were out, I can say that I ‘’ate, drunk and slept prayers’’ with a promise to Maker that I will never dare dream of copying an exam again. I condemn no one who copies exams, buys the project or even sleeps for him/her to get a grade for in this life one chooses the way to live but consequences of such decisions/choices  come to haunt us in life however long they take to pop up.

Do I see this trend in the Police service where I work…?

May be the same thing  is what I happen to see being exhibited in the Police service where there was hope that the graduate Inspectors who earn a direct promotion from a constable to inspector after graduating with degrees  would bring in a reformed way of dealing with their juniors but have failed miserably. I bet when their conduct is compared to the old folks usually referred to as ‘Ngumbaru’ to mean not so much educated is just a shame to higher education. There was so much hope that this crop of officers would bring in a reformed way of doing things in the police service but my personal experience is that the biggest percentage has been a big let down to the ‘graduates fraternity’ as most are simply bullies, are full of male/Female egoism, want to be recognized as educated which rarely matches what an educated person should be like. 

The degree for promotion mentality may be one of the reasons why most officers just  go to any other University and take a course that costs the lowest and that takes the shortest time to complete and after graduation one is able to rise to this ‘prestigious’ rank of a police Inspector. An attempt to reason with this crop of graduates can earn one the wrath of an ‘educated’ fellow as a good chunk of these fellows have no time for the ‘un educated’. Take a case of a graduate with a second class honors upper division in a certain field who practically confesses that he/she is not aware of much of what is contained in their transcripts since the desire to have the paper was driven by that of attaining the rank of an inspector and that’s it.

Somebody wonders then, why do we have the level of education among police officers going slightly high but performance in the police service continues to head south? My bet is education is never valued in here as the argument is ‘kazi ya polisi ni ile ile tu’ to mean that police work never changes. An ignorant statement that I have heard some senior police officers say out very loudly. The argument is that the police Occurrence book remains the same, the same uniforms, same housing, more or less same rank structure, corruption in recruitments, animalistic training in the name of ‘kuondoa uraia’ to mean removal of the civilian mind from new recruits, lack of a needs driven recruitment, training, posting, promotion and even placement just makes the matters worse. Most police officers just work in here simply due to lack of a way out hence one must stick in to at least educate the kids and do other few things here and there. The most shocking thing is how much most of us earn after taking loans. Some have been earning negative figures until recently a cap to how much one must not commit with loans was introduced (1/3 of the basic Salary must not be used in securing a loan) but this remains useless with existence of shy locks.

Advice/Caution. The next time a police officer loots from you, do not be surprised as he/she may be out on a school fees search mission, may be trying to ‘save’ as much as is reasonably available to buy junks that are visible in most parking lots, buying beer and entertainment and funding larger than life lifestyles among other ‘needs’ that Civilians must foot the bill! A good number of officers, an almost negligible one however don’t live like this!  I however pity a good number of those married to irresponsible male/female cops who most of the times withdraw their salaries, drink/spend it all only for the wives/husbands to ask for an explanation on how the money was spent only to receive severe kicks/slaps reason being that they are not the one s who ‘put on uniforms’ to work hence have no say on the salary of their husbands/wives. I will be quick to say that there is a small number of officers who don’t live this kind of lifestyle.

Is a police officer a liability or an asset to this Nation..?

One year after the #westgate attack was widely being commemorated; I wondered why I had not seen a similar commemoration for the fallen heroes who died in the Baragoi massacre. The same men in uniform who were engaged in Westgate rescue mission were the same guys whose comrades were massacred in Baragoi hence I could say there were double standards on matters terror or tragedy.  This may be one of the reasons why being arrested by a police officer is not a sweet thing  due to the fact that one must always part way with some  money for release even when one has broken no law.  May be humane treatment of police officers, proper funding and accounting of these monies, modern and professional training, placement, promotion or even putting in a well managed exit programme would be one of the ways to tame insecurity in this nation lest we continue chasing shadows in the name of taming the run down insecurity, corruption and mis management of matters police officers. How do Kenyans expect an ill trained, housed, posted, fed, uniformed and stressful police officers to be effective at work? Or we have Nyumba kumi to sort out insecurity? 

My fellow officers working in the operational areas may be the most vulnerable employees of the Government of Kenya. These are areas where banditry, cattle rustling and enemy attacks are the order of the day. Clean drinking water is a problem here, proper sanitation a problem, no proper food, the officers are ever stressed and marriages broken, allowances stolen by bosses and the little that is available is barely adequate for survival. The married ones suffer most as commuting to visit their ‘next of kin’ as popularly known in here , once in a month may never be possible.  May be if senior government officers, politicians and those sitting in various commissions set to address matters police officers visits these areas with all being subjected to what police officers go through for only three days, police officers would be given their rightful place in the society, would be paid well, trained well, transferred and promoted through merit, would be well clothed, fed, housed and even have access to the best medical facility in this nation. Kenya as a country could be the safest in the region if not in the world….