By Gab O
William Ruto has said our universities should stop teaching sociology, history, and anthropology; because no one wants to know when Vasco Da Gama built that pillar in Malindi. He says we need more students in science, math, engineering and technology for Kenya to develop.
I see many of you without a clue on what anthropology is cheering loudly. You all need to go back to school, with that William Ruto of yours, because it seems you went to school to take a picture with a graduation gown and never picked anything the entire period you were there. Your ignorance on basic terminologies is showing from outside space.Your academic certificates should all be recalled.
William Ruto just defended his PhD thesis yesterday. It focuses on The Influence of Anthropogenic Activities on Land Use and Environmental Quality of Saiswa Wetland Watershed, in Western Kenya. The breaking news is that he might not know it but a Year One student of Anthropology would have written that thesis with his eyes closed.
Do not let that title fool you.
Anthropogenic Activities, in simple terms, are activities caused directly or indirectly by humans on the biophysical environments and ecosystems, biodiversity and natural resources. Those changes can bring about a range of adverse effects, including global warming, and environmental degradation. William Ruto might be interested to note that the Faculty of Anthropology, at the University of Nairobi, teaches a Course Unit called ‘Ecological Anthropology’. His PhD research topic is a 25-minute lesson under that unit. An entry level anthropologist would have taken two months to finish that project and defend it with distinction. The fact that it has taken him six years to finish such an entry-level research study should demonstrate to him how hollow-headed he is on matters scholarship.
He should have contacted my Ecological Anthropology lecturer, Prof. Isaac Keango Nyamongo, then Faculty Director at the University of Nairobi Institute of Anthropology, and now the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research & Development, at the Cooperative University of Kenya, nestled up there under his nose in Karen. I would have told you more about the professional goldmine that Anthropology is, but I did not go to school for anyone.
And my mother did not sell her cows to take another cow to school.
