----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Mensah" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 11:56 AM
Subject: [unioNews] Mau Mau veteran, 84, finally goes to school
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
<H3>Mau Mau veteran, 84, finally goes to school</H3>
By PETER NG'ETICH
<B><i>When the six-year-olds take a lesson at Kapkenduiywa Primary
School, in Eldoret, one pupil stands out head and shoulders above the
rest... 84-year-old Mau Mau veteran Mzee Kimani Ng'ang'a
Maruge.</i></B>
Mzee Maruge has formally enrolled in Standard One, so he can learn to
read the Bible.
He also wants to study simple maths, so he can work out his
compensation as a freedom fighter.
But for him, education will not stop at understanding the Bible,
chapter and verse, nor at adding up his income.
He said if he succeeds in his studies, he would like to become a
veterinary doctor.
Mzee Maruge took the first steps towards fulfilling his ambition this
month, perhaps the oldest candidate to take advantage of the
introduction of free primary education.
He said yesterday: "People have been telling me things in the Bible,
which I do not know if are true, and I want to read the Holy Book for
myself and find out."
He added he had been cheated for a long time about his earnings and
he wanted to put a stop to it.
School deputy head Tabitha Busolo said: "We thought he was joking
when he came to us looking for enrolment. He was among the first
newcomers to report and was issued with four exercise books and a
pencil for maths, English, Kiswahili and general subjects."
He conforms to the school uniform, too. He cut down his blue trousers
into shorts, bought a light blue shirt and blue striped stockings and
wears a dark blue jacket to match.
Like the other pupils, he reports at 8am and leaves for home - 500
metres away, where he lives with his sister - at 12:45pm when he goes
off to herd his cow and five sheep.
But there are some concessions to his age.
For instance, while his classmates sit on the ground, Mzee Maruge has
been given a chair by head teacher Jane Obichu, who is also making
him a desk.
And for physical exercise, while other students run around and make
lots of noise, Mzee Maruge is allowed to gently stretch his muscles.
Mzee Maruge is not only a pupil at Kapkenduiywa but he is also a
teacher.
He tells the staff about the Mau Mau, a life they have only read
about. His wife died five years ago and 10 of his 15 children are
also dead: two shot by the British while he was trying to escape
arrest, and eight because of illness.
Explained his class teacher Mr Moses Chemworen: "When other pupils
are out of class for break, sometimes when he doesn't mingle with
them, we chat with him and he tells us a lot of Mau Mau life."
Copyright ©2003, Nation Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved.
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QUOTATION:
"All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishments of an African
empire, so strong and powerful as to compel the respect of mankind, but we
in our lifetime can so work and act as to make the dream a possibility
within another generation"
-<html><A HREF="http://members.aol.com/GhanaUnion/afrohero.html">Ancestor
Marcus Mosiah Garvey <i>(1887 - 1940)</i></A></html>
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