students to the Eastern countries to train
students in exactly the same disciplines
that the Western bloc was offering.
This is when Ochieng and company
started to realize what the fuss about
the pamphlets had been all about as they
were soon to be made aware that the
world was divided on ideological spheres
between capitalists and communists and
each ideology was trying to dominate the
world.
The capitalist, espousing the tenets of
Most pitiful is the
lot of our doc-
tors who we spend
millions to train
only to end up un-
derpaying them
which is a sure rec-
ipe that they shall
move to the pri-
vate sector while
the country’s pro-
letariat continues
to suffer and die
unnecessarily.
democracy as envisaged in the United
States strongly supported a system of
one man one vote and the distribution on
resources was to be determined by a free
market economy where one profited by the
sweat of their brow.
The communists on the other hand believed
that man by nature was greedy and if you
allowed him to distribute wealth it would
be done inefficiently. The cure was to have
communal ownership of all resources and
for the government to distribute it as per
individual requirements.
The choices taken then by the soon to be
independent African countries had major
ramifications on the future of the region.
Tanganyika chose a communist path as
Kenya elected to adopt a democratic path
although there were factions in Kenya that
favored a communist approach.
As expected Ochieng and his gang were
pro-communist as a result of listening
to Mwalimu’s broadcasts which they did
not understand but they had started to
hear about the seductive politics of Fidel
Castro and the exploits of a certain Che
Guevara who captured the imagination of
all would be revolutionaries.
To most African countries independence
came abruptly when they were not quite
ready for it as they were caught up in the
independence wave that was sweeping
through the British Empire which was
given impetus by the Indian independence
grant in 1947.
The Indians in Kenya brought in originally
to build the railway and who had elected
to remain and formed the original trading
class and government functionaries, were
aware that independence was possible and
they played a major part in agitating for
Kenya’s independence.
Soon independence came and Ochieng and
gang found themselves in the transition
between graduating from primary to
secondary education but by this time the
political climate had changed drastically
and the needs of the newly independent
African countries were different.
The countries had gained political
independence and soon realized that
a country’s development was based on
economic productivity and the agitators
for political inclusion and independence
had no clue how to run bureaucratic
machinery built by the colonist.
The government was desperate to develop
the skills that they needed and by the
time Ochieng and gang were reaching the
fourth form there were new careers that
were in vogue determined by what the
government needed over and above the
teachers.
Priesthood had become nearly obsolete.
The colonial owned bureaucracy needed to
quickly supplement the missionaries who
at independence controlled most of the
social services that the new governments
needed to provide to its citizens so