It has been quite some time since I wrote an article
followers of my blog and articles have been asking me what went wrong, to summarize
everything I was on a political leave but am now back. Now that first years
have reported to campus, main campus where main things happen. In this academic
environment you are destined to make new friends and come across different
comrades some you are bound to like in your five year stay on campus,
considering the further notices by the way forget the expiry date on the school
identification card, while there are those you will hate with passion. Here is
a list of comrades you are bound to interact with:
Flower
girls and Best Men;
Flower girls
are female comrades who never take part in group assignments which are usually
given in bulk by lecturers while best men are male comrades who do
the same. They contribute nothing as they only emerge out of nowhere during the
last minutes when the assignment is about to be collected. Flower girls usually come
up with both convincible excuses such as “am
out of town my mother is sick, am having periods………..” and inconvincible
excuses like “niko saloon,niko dispensary……am in the saloon,am in the
dispensary” while best men only issue threats like “muache utiaji mkose kuniweka kwa io group work at your own risk”
“leave me out of the group work at your own risk”,however, some best men
offer to foot the printing and binding
expenses of the assignment as long as they sign. Despite all of this you
end up getting the same marks despite of their non-participation. The more best
men and flower girls you have in your discussion group,
the more you are bound to have more academic enemies. Another head ache is when
the lecturer randomly picks either a best man or a flower girl to present, he
or she might end up presenting imaginations instead of facts costing the whole
group marks. Flower girls and best men belong to an association ,Tired Students Association(TSA)
Goons,
Goonlets and Goonlings; this are comrades my friend Brian
Yego describes as politically hyper active comrades who support a candidate
vying for student governing council position to their death under the influence
of anything, anything in this case means everything from tribal loyalty, money,
handouts, alcohol to personal conviction. A goon
is a male student, a goonlet is a
female student and a goonling is a
student from both genders who is new in the game and is not yet a goon and a goonlet.
Politicians;
this are comrades who eat, drink and sleep politics .They engage in never
ending emotional debates which never end, they usually know each other. They
debate and analyze both local Student Council politics, National politics;
CORD-JUBILEE politics and International politics; Obama-Mc Cain politics. They
usually converge at the frustration
square where the debate never ends. They use difficult terms such as ‘Corpora Coporata’ and ‘comatose’ irrespective of the sentence
so as to confuse each other while debating.
Women
Reps; forget the ones who were elected for gender equity
and to present issues affecting women at county level in parliament .Here it is
a cliché used to refer to men who are
Janitors-In-Chief
and those who practice unrestricted
submarine warfare. They either seduce or claim to have seduced all ladies
with or without evidence. I was to give you two examples, however, I will give
you one since the other threatened unwarranted repercussions if I mention him
as a women rep. My friend Eddy Ashioya is one of them. This
male students are the ones who “untrip” the electrical circuits in
female hostels whenever there is a blackout. Their presence and impact around hostel
J, K and L is highly felt.
Super
Editors; these are comrades whom you would envy,
they have a rare talent or is it a genetic
mutation. This are comrades who have the ability to borrow your take away
assignment edit it in a manner that it would seem you are the one who has
copied yet it is vice versa. They end up getting more marks than you yet you
are the owner of the original copy yet they are the pirate’s, thus the bragging
rights.
Dabo
Tappers; these are comrades who never bother to
copy notes, and as remedy of dealing with them I write like a doctor issuing
prescription to nurses so that they don’t borrow my note book. Their main
activity when the lecturer is busy dictating and focused comrades are busy
copying notes is ‘dabo tapping’ their
touch screen phones. They usually open more than four tabs while surfing for
different social sites; Facebook, twitter, Instagram and my space while using
whatsapp and text messages at the same time thus paying no attention whatsoever
to what the lecturer is saying.
Backbenchers; they are always Missing in Action (MIA)
as they maintain minimum and necessary contact with lecturers. This are comrades
who make semesterial appearances more so during sit in Continuous Assessment Tests
(CATs) without any academic paraphernalia and any idea the name of
the lecturer,the course name and code and even the date.They end up pestering
you with questions concerning the course but without courtesy, “Eeh buda boss huyo mzae hujiitanga aje” “you guy how does that guy(lecturer) how does
he call himself.”
