Eric Odhiambo hilariously recalls how he was caught with Mwakenya inside the examination room.
Those who went to a Kenyan university know about the phrase “degree ni harambee.” This means a comrade who rarely attends classes and doesn’t participate in group assignments will eventually graduate by riding on the efforts of other comrades.
This has been a long-held tradition, and I doubt it has changed in the little over seven years since I was a student at one of the public universities.
Back then, we dreaded the very idea of getting a “supp,” and I guess that’s where the “degree ni harambee” idea of assisting comrades who were lagging behind in their studies originated.
Supplementary
For starters, a supplementary, or “Supp,” occurs when a student gets less than 40 percent in an exam unit.
Initially, I could barely fathom how I could ever fail to attain 40 percent marks when I was used to smashing papers by scoring marks in the north of 70 percent.
But sooner rather than later, I learned a number of reasons as to why getting 40 percent is such a tall order for a typical campus student.
Here are some anecdotes:
My buddy Kevo would disappear into town immediately after a Continous Assessment Test (C.A.T. ), ostensibly to celebrate.
Suffice to say,on campus, most of the reading aims to achieve a pass and avoid supp. As for the rest of the time (I am talking about the time in between the first class of the semester and the end-of-the-semester exam), fun times reign.
After every C.A.T., there is a celebration. As such, you have comrades streaming into the students’ centre to irrigate their dry throats for 14 weeks and spare only two weeks to cram notes for exams.
Yet if there is a funny side to this story, it is that of the morning before a C.A.T. or exam. On such days, you have comrades striving to cram scores of notes.
A comrade utilising Mwakenya. Photo/Twitter
In such days, few comrades have time for pleasantries. Mwakenya, or Mwaks, refers to short illegal notes carried into the examination room for reference.
Bluntly speaking, I just did not have the talent or the audacity to carry Mwakenya into the examination room.
I once tried it in my first semester of college, and the results were awful. It all started when the lecturer who was invigilating came and sat next to me.
Sweating profusely
I started sweating copiously, such that barely twenty minutes after the exam had started, my shirt and vest were soaked in sweat.
“Are you alright?” the inquisitive invigilator had inquired.
“Yes, I am,” I replied flatly, avoiding eye contact.
The more-than-hawk-eyed invigilator scrutinised me with extreme thoroughness. She noticed that my left hand was not leaving my lap.
She cleverly lifted her hand, and there was the exhibit. However, the funniest thing is that she did not make it a big issue. I think she saw an amateur “Mwakenyan” who had learned his lesson the hard way.
Hence, I think she saw no need to punish me.
A sophomore comrade once envisioned boiling books and drinking the resulting concoctions for learning.
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Well, this is wishful thinking, but quite in order for a comrade preoccupied with making merry on campus.
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