This post was published on equator weekly, but i post it here that those who did not read it might get a chance to get some insight into how STUDENT ORGANIZATION in Kenya operate with particular reference to STUDENT ORGANIZATION of MASENO UNIVERSITY (S.O.M.U).
Contempt and criticisms characterize all kind of political and elective positions anywhere in the world. Some of these criticisms are warranted while others are mere pejoratives of prejudiced minds. S.O.M.U has had a fair share of criticisms and all who have served in SOMU have not been spared, they all have been demonized as incompetent ingrates only motivated to “kukula pesa zetu”. Some SOMU officials are evidently very mediocre and deserve to be criticized. But it’s not justified to condemn and criticize just for the sake of criticism and condemnation as it is evident that many are hell-bent in portraying SOMU as unresponsive, unproductive and a near useless organization. This is the single story that most have of SOMU/SGC. Misallocation of student funds, underperformance, unfulfilled promises, unresponsive members are some of the allegations making up this single story of SOMU, some of this might be true but making it the definitive story of SOMU is not okay!
This single story of SOMU demoralizes the truly committed leaders; this single story will rob some of them from the credits they deserve and their dignity, this single story denies many the opportunity to participate in SOMU activities or even running for a given post as recently experienced where only single contestants showed up for the post of Editor and the Organizing secretary respectively. This single story will make many blind to any kind of achievement by SOMU. How can SOMU be vocal in the national politics if it does not have the support of the students because of the contempt it is held?
SOMU comprises of not only the Student Governing Council(SGC), which everyone seems to criticize but it also comprises affiliate bodies like MUABS, MUACU, RED CROSS, MUCSA thus the criticisms do not spare such well meaning organizations as well.
SOMU’s duties is simply to act as the link between the student body and the administration, to be the mouth piece of the student body and air their grievances, to work for the students and with the administration, to follow up in making enquiries and propose new ideas and bring down the administration to be student friendly and responsive to their needs. SOMU ensures that all semester activities are conducted on time and successfully and many sacrifice both their time and energy towards this end.
The expectations that we have of SOMU is an unrealistic one, we expect SOMU to do things magically, to fix that blown inflorescent tube in your room almost immediately (and you have not reported to anyone), to make sure transcripts don’t have re-sits on them, to make the queues at the mess be shorter, to make sure that the library is fully stocked, to make sure that there is a television in every hostel. When they don’t meet this expectations the “robin hood” style, all you get is very cruel accusations against it.
The roles of Maseno university administration and that of SOMU is not the same, SOMU might not do some things because it is out of their mandate. We should all strive to recognize the correct boundaries to prevent both the exaggerated disdain, contempt for and help restore the confidence that we should have in this organization.
Limited resources, falling confidence in, lack of support from student’s body and the bottleneck of bureaucracy in addressing student’s grievances and even raising funds for their activities are some problems that affects the performance of SOMU immensely.
SOMU members on the other hand should strive to embrace ethics, integrity and serve with diligence, rid themselves of tribal alliances, corruption and the culture of mediocrity which greatly hinders their performance and till they do that it is no doubt that the criticism and mistrust will always be directed to their activities.
I fully concur with th above article.folks should always learn to be realistic in their criticisms.Bravo Jean.
ReplyDeleteBrian Khayesi, this covers every aspect of our society..and we should always seek to have both sides of a story before throwing in condemnation and criticisms.
ReplyDeleteDalle. Somu is not magical, i concur. there are some things they cant do either, i concur also. but are they doing what they are surposed to? the article says they are the students' mouthpiece to the admin. it feels like they more of the administration's mouthpiece to students. tell me this is a lie
ReplyDeletekisemei, i cant say that is a lie,but then again, from my days in office we did indeed take every problem and student's complaints to the administration,(the dean,director student welfare services and the vice chancellor) despite our insistence and efforts whether those complaints were really adressed or not was upon the admin. The organization did not communicate to everyone about what problem has been taken to the admin and the response received, this was a failure. so the student body were in the dark, if SOMU could communicate back to everyone what they are doing, what problem and the response received, or if any the progress achieved...maybe the the relationship between SOMU and the student fraternity will improve, be more cordial and supportive and the two will then work together!!
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