Mutula should let schools to choose students’ dressing code

By Joseph Lister Nyaringo,
New Jersey, USA
I vehemently disagree with the Minister for education over his recent support to students of Rwathia Girls Secondary for demanding to be allowed to wear short skirts against the school’s dressing code.

Kenyans expected Mutula Kilonzo, to focus on his core Ministerial duties and not to lecture Kenyan teachers and students about modernity.

The modernity Mutula talks about should not drive us to ruin our societal decency. I’m sure any parent will undergo a nervous breakdown to discover that their beloved girl-child has been raped on her way from School because of dressing in a manner that provoked or enticed a rapist.

It’s a good practise to shield that which entices the eye to make a person sin. Even the Bible reminds us not to partake that which will make your friend to stumble.

Girls and boys at puberty want to attract attention through their looks and outfits. This is a critical stage for every human being and whoever is tasked with mentoring these youngsters must be good role models.

This is exactly what the administration of Rwathia Girls School is trying to do by ensuring that the students dress decently, respectively and comfortably. That is why Mutula's liberal view on the dressing code for Kenyan girls is irresponsible, immoral and uncalled for.

As a father figure, we expected him to be the guide towards moral ethic; respect and encouraging young people both girls boy, to guard their decency. Otherwise, dressing decently is a moral responsibility which should be upheld by all gender irrespective of age.

Therefore, encouraging the girls to dress provocatively or seductively under the aegis of modernity is actually giving rapists ammunitions for attack.

The trend is likely to elicit negative repercussions especially in mixed boarding schools where girls and boys mingle freely. It seems Mutula has never heard of mass rape within institutions.

We have experienced many acts of sexual violence mostly against women and the girl child where the victims rarely get justice. Quite often, the contributing factor is poor mode of dressing which attracts the male predators.

Unlike in the West where a distress call is answered within 3 minutes by police, and where most school going children carry cell phones, the Kenyan situation is a different ball game.

The Ministry of education should give a free hand for institutions to build their own standards for discipline including the dressing code.

I applause Rwathia Girls Secondary for trying to enforce a decent dressing code for their students and this should be emulated by other public and private schools in Country.

Even in the Western World where students’ mode of dressing is never a major issue, some schools still embrace a dressing code depending on the standards set upon by the School Districts.

Therefore, it’s our responsibility to reject any modern or Western styles which can taint the moral fabric of our young people. We need to promote those which will work for our private and public wellbeing.
It’s sad to see our young men and women getting more Americanized than the American themselves. On dressing, what we see on the streets on Nairobi is not different from what you will see in Chicago and New York.

I am not trying to imply that what is American is bad but we need to respect, maintain and uphold our identity. The rate at which our people are imitating the western styles like talking accents, gestures, and dressing, while thinking that ours is primitive and inferior is totally misplaced.

Why copy ways which do not conform to our customs or add value to our lives under the aegis of modernity and freedom of choice that Mutula his talking about? We know very well that Westerners, do not copy any of our customs.

We need to remember that we are a society which respects values which are often pegged on our culture, morals and traditions.