Just as Kenyans began asking serious questions about the failures of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), a familiar distraction appeared. Rigathi Gachagua’s remarks on school admissions dominated headlines, and almost overnight, the national conversation shifted. Whether this was a planned psychological operation or the intelligence and propaganda system simply making effective use of his careless statements, the outcome was clear: the CBC debate died.
Instead of interrogating overcrowded classrooms, unprepared teachers, confused parents, and a confused education philosophy, Kenyans retreated into identity politics. Media houses, civil society figures, and social media commentators rushed to “contextualize” Gachagua’s remarks, with some insisting he “had a point.” In doing so, they legitimized ignorance and pushed serious policy discussion to the margins.
Missionary schools, long part of a colonial education structure designed to serve empire, were suddenly reframed as African achievements. A broken education system was no longer the issue. Voting blocs, ethnicity, and cultural pride took center stage. This pattern is not new. Every time public discussion edges toward political economy—how power and resources are organized—it is redirected back to identity.
Since the 1952 Emergency, the idea of “Mt Kenya” has served a political function: narrowing thought and fragmenting collective consciousness. The colonial state used it to discredit pan-African politics as tribal and irrational. That logic persists today. To discuss geopolitics is branded un-African. To question systems is arrogance. Education is reduced to obedience and “competence.”
This is the same Gachagua who once argued that limited education can be beneficial because it makes people easier to instruct, while the educated become arrogant. That worldview is now shaping national debate on schooling.
Whether deliberate or opportunistic, the result is the same: Kenyans stopped debating CBC—and started fighting each other instead.
