The Kenyan Reader

Have you ever asked yourself where the strong passion of reading goes to when one completes his/her Kenya certificate of secondary examinations ( KCSE )? Well, this is a rhetoric question that has always lingered in my mind for a very long time and I’ve finally taken my time to analyze the whole issue ( in my own perspective).
I can still clearly recall me filling in the secondary school admission form, on that joyous day when I finally joined my “dream school”, St. Mary’s school, Yala. I wanted to be a doctor by profession when I grow up. That’s what I actually filled in the forms. Was that really my dream in life? Well by then I was a naive young but enthusiastic boy but I honestly didn’t know much about occupations.
You must agree with me that at the age of 14 one doesn’t know much about careers or jobs. At that tender age one has role models, in most cases being parents, elderly family friends, and mostly uncles and aunts. Why did I say uncles and aunts? Most kids are always told “this is aunt so and so or this is uncle so and so”. So a kid grows up always saying that I want to be like uncle…when I grow up or I want to be like aunt… when I grow up.
You must, if not totally then partially agree with me that nowadays most students don’t read widely while at school or during holidays. Students in both secondary and higher learning institutions mainly read to pass exams. Most students also read just when exams are approaching; I can comfortably say 90% of students. Students fear failing in exams and they also don’t like reading. This is a worrying trend and tutors should actually put measures that can push students to read widely, for example giving them more assignments that can always keep them busy, even during holidays.
For example, how many novels, or just “story books” have you read apart from the compulsory set books you did in high school? personally I’ve not read more than five novels ever since did my KCSE. The reading culture among students is without doubt slowly dying and with the continuous developments in technology, nearly all learning institutions will adopt e-learning.
There’s always a famous say that “if you want to hide money from a Kenyan just keep it inside a book” I just can’t agree more with that “say”. It is actually true that very few would think of money being kept inside a text book or a novel, probably it’s the safest place to keep money away from a Kenyan.
it is estimated that in Kenya alone there are over 15 million internet users. Most people nowadays read newspapers online and even books.
I must say that im also a victim of internet reading of newspapers (digital edition) and i find it more convenient than going to the streets to buy a whole booklet of news prints.
This is just to say in a nutshell that the "manual" reading culture has been crippled by the advanced technology where people can nowadays access books, newspapers, magazines online.