bad kid culture continues to evolve because as Kenyans we would rather straddle the moral high horse than admit that the Kenyan experience is nuanced.
when I say things like Kenyan Experience, i mean within the chlorophyll zone, and urban, with access to various forms of media.

when I joined form one, there were these girls I can only remember as The M-Pesa girls. very bright. Facebook starlets those ones. they’d sneak through the fence to go to the club on the weekend and people knew. it wasn’t ati a big deal.

they did it a number of times, at least after I joined, but only got busted the first term of form four after one of them allegedly left a tube of lipgloss at the fence during one of their excursions. the school expelled them and called it a day.

they turned 18 and it became a matter of personal responsibility, la di da. they came, did their exams, passed, la di da. nobody ever found out who Mr MPesa was, after all the girls were naughty and they got rid of them to teach everyone a lesson, so who cares?

it’s been ten years since that expulsion and I’m sitting here thinking that these 7 girls could easily be victims of the exact same situation, only that they aren’t in school because of the pandemic and are more susceptible to such criminals.

but the solution is rinse repeat: shame the kids. what kichwa ngumu kid are you shaming, pray tell? why don’t you ask yourself why the kid is like that? why not, omigod can you imagine, talk to the kid or find someone who can?