REALITY: Nairobi Aviation Students Will Regret Storming And Stoning Nation Centre

Taking to the streets to demonstrate or protest or picket is always considered the last option after all avenues have failed to bear fruits. In fact demonstrations are a message that says, look, we have tried all possible means to solve this situation without success, so we resort to this: protesting.

NTV’s Dennis Okari went into depths to show Kenyans how people throng organizations with dished out certificates to look for employment opportunities even when they are sure they have never attended a single class. His case study was Nairobi Aviation College where he unraveled the mystery behind half-baked and incompetent personnel holding serious dockets in various organizations.

The expose, however, as it would turn out later, did not go down well with students from the institution. They advised themselves to face NTV head on, and so they did.

Monday morning we woke up to streets in Nairobi jammed with irate NAC students carrying twigs and other dangerous materials like stones, chanting names and calling NTV and particularly Dennis Okari all sorts of names, baying for his blood.

This was the first instance where the NAC students had just gone wrong. Why shoot the messenger when you have access to the accused? Directing their rage at NTV and Dennis Okari was the worst mistake an intellectual would ever do.

Okari had unraveled the rot going behind in NAC, a rot that would affect the students directly or indirectly.

Take this for instance. In the expose, Okari revealed how students graduated from the institution even when their exams had not been marked. I have been in college before and I used to hear that these things happen. Well, Okari just confirmed the grape vine that used to do round colleges.

Wasn’t this helpful to the students pursuing different courses in NAC and other institutions? Was Okari the right person to direct their anger to? Absolutely not. Instead of wasting time along Kimathi Street hurling stones at the giant Nation Centre building and harassing a journalist who came to cover the unfortunate event, the NAC students should have stormed their admin offices and demanded to know whether indeed their exams were not marked. They should have demanded for all the booklets to ascertain Okari’s claim.

That was the first case of what I will call misplaced anger directed to the wrong person. At the end of the day some of them were arrested and later arraigned in court where they were slapped with heavy cash bails. Kshs. 200,000 is an uphill task for a student and/or their parents.

Now the worse mistake that the students are likely to regret later is that they attacked a potential employer.

Nation Media Group and other organizations housed under Nation Center are potential employers for the students. Over time and again we have been told that do not cut a hand that feeds you or likely to feed you.

Stone thrown by NAC students hanging loosely on the window at Nation Centre

NAC students nipped the hand that is likely to feed them in the near future. Someone is already rubbishing my claims by saying that there are many potential employers. I know but look here, employers have the same voice all over. When you present your papers for employment sometimes later, they will definitely give you a promise that will never happen.

Stoning Nation Centre was the worst mistake that NAC students made. You are a journalist, an aspiring PR practitioner, a pilot, a business person or whatever you study in NAC and all you can do is throw stones in the heart of the capital. That is absolutely pathetic.

Energy wasted on useless and baseless engagements has never been recovered. I hope your potential employers are not reading this piece because it sounds so inciting.

Your management just confirmed the worst fears we had already developed when they released a memo full of literals. There is nothing like ‘roomers’ when you actually mean ‘rumors’.

Food for thought.