In the month of June this year, we experienced an irony of its kind. On date of June 16th, the world celebrated the day of the African child. This marked 35 years since the Soweto uprising of 1976, when about ten thousand black students in the apartheid South Africa went marching in the streets to lay complain about the poor quality of their education. The young men also demanded for rights to be taught in their native language. Hundreds of students were shot and killed while thousands were injured in the two- week long demonstration. The organization of African Unity (OAU) declared this day to be a day for championing education of the African child. Kenya, as a member of the African Union, the scion of OAU, joined other Africans in celebrations of this day. But somewhere in this republic, a Member of Parliament was frothing with an idea of abolishing use of native languages in public offices. It remains anyone’s guess whether this member could have sided with the African students or with the Boer government.
As it is wont, for every enraged capable man, Hon. Elias Mbau could not endure to undergo an untold suffering. He had to redeem himself from this ignominy. The MP has sponsored a bill in Parliament which if it goes through, could criminalize use of vernacular in public offices as from next year. The lucky lot consists of field officers who will be allowed to use vernacular while in the field duties.
It will beat sense to discuss Hon.Mbaus source of wisdom in sponsoring such a motion. His experience is existentialist and trying to understand it may pull us into a vortex of fallacies. The little we can decipher from his move is that he has become a darling and a pariah to many, in more or less the same measure. It is still nebulous for us to know if the bill will sail through. Whatever the outcome, it behoves Kenyans to wait with bated breath for the post- bill impact on the use of our native languages.
In the likelihood of the bill sailing through, I pour my sympathy to the public servants who have customized public offices to be their tribal havens, to the effect that they cannot be proficient either in English or Kiswahili. It comes as a rule of the thumb that he who is serving in a multiethnic society should be in a position to communicate in a language understandable across the nation. This bill will assist to light the gloomy clouds that hang above those who face alienation in public offices due to language. The law will go a long way in ensuring that Kenyans are real time with the concept of global village. In a world where we seek to harmonize things to happen on a global stage, he who insists on superiority of his mother tongue, over more unifying languages like English,Kiswahili and French is courting regression. Our insistence on holding our vernacular as a deity has cultivated provincialism in our society. It disturbs to see a young person whose discourse is riddled with a lot of lexical density, sole reason being he has never taken learning other languages as a serious issue. It becomes quite difficult for such a soul to land opportunities outside the cage that defines his native language.
On an unfortunate side of things, Hon.Mbaus’ bill will land our older generation that never had a chance to learn other languages in a cul-de-sac. These old people should be considered in the bill. They do not need to pay for the sins of the jingoes who sit in public offices and speak vernacular to all and sundry. The bill should have mitigation measures to ensure we do not lose our cultural diversity. We should not discourage use of vernacular, but it is perfectly in order to ban its use in public offices.
Sponsoring of this bill goes a long way into diminishing the same lexical density problem that has plagued several young bright minds in the country. Francis Imbuga, in his works; shrine of tears, refers to the problem as mother tongue superiority. Am yet to understand why Jay Boge, in Imbugas’ novel, gets enraged when Mr. Silverspoon tells him that his English does not have mother tongue influence. Well, Imbuga could be having different reasons for championing mother tongue influence.
We should pride ourselves in speaking English devoid of mother tongue influence, in speaking mother tongue devoid of English influence and in speaking Kiswahili devoid of other language influence. And wait a minute, there are those who don’t know any mother tongue, or English or Kiswahili. They only speak Sheng. These crops of speakers need a bill of their own. The Congolese say,makambo ya kokamwa, that is, worrying problems.
Fen Tshombe 