Prize Giving and Speech Day at State House Girls High School, Nairobi

    1 REPUBLIC OF KENYA THE PRESIDENCY MINISTRY OF DEVOLUTION AND PLANNING SPEECH BY ANNE WAIGURU, OGW CABINET SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF DEVOLUTION AND PLANNING DURING THE PRIZE GIVING AND SPEECH DAY AT STATE HOUSE GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL ON THE 5 TH  OF JUNE 2015 THE PRINCIPAL, MRS MUTOTI, FELLOW PARENTS, STUDENTS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I am honored to have been granted this opportunity to address you on this prestigious occasion A prize-giving day is an important event on any annual school calendar It‟s  an opportunity to look back and take stock of our accomplishments over the last one year For some of us, the accomplishment is that we are still here and still in one piece Today is of course about you the students As such I shall endeavor to be short and to the point This is obviously because I am addressing the twitter and instagram generation, a generation    2 that has distinguished itself by reducing communication to 140 characters We now live in the age of OMG, ROFL, THX, L8R, BRB, LMAO, and the ever present LOL I am reliably informed that you teenagers don‟t even bother laughing at jokes anymore, you just exclaim LOL Every generation distinguishes itself by unleashing a new wave of creativity in language and communication Take a look at sheng for example, every generation has had a different version of its own Words like fathee   and mathee   and ponyi   were quite radical during my time, but today, I see young people roll their eyes in confusion when we use these words Such words are now antique and some of you are finding me rather „shady‟ and out of date for  just making reference to these On a light note, let me share a story A brother of a colleague of mine after high school emigrated to the United States for fifteen years in pursuit of education and job opportunities Upon returning to Kenya, he immediately sought to establish his street credentials among his teenage nieces and nephews by speaking to them in Sheng He walked up to them and said „nimeshikwa  na ponyi akaniambie nimpatie handa‟ (translation: I was caught by a cop and he asked for a hundred shillings) Sadly he was speaking the Sheng of the 80s which had long since morphed into something totally different His teenage audience was completely lost and instead of the guy looking cool, he sounded positively shao Is shao still in use by the way? Oh well    3 The point I am making here is that language changes; from Sasa to WSUP The means of communication also changes; from KBC to youtube The tools of communication also change; from hand written letters to smart phones In other words the only constant thing in life is change Change is ever present Girls! I assure you, change will happen in your lives, you will grow older with every passing year; your social status will change from secondary school girl, to college student and eventually to worker/ entrepreneur/ employer etc; society will demand of you different things at different stages of your life; you will change from daughter only to daughter and mother; technology will change, and change the way you live What I am saying is change is for sure, and I am not prophesying, it just is!  As teenagers I‟m sure you are indeed familiar with the process of change You yourselves have been changing, through physical maturity, emotional changes, changes in knowledge and even social changes How well you navigate this process of change, and embrace the difference it brings determines how well you adjust and become part of a community The change process, is however not always easy, it unsettles us, breaking our knowns and thrusting us into unknown territory However despite its certainty, change is one of the most mismanaged affairs of our daily living We rarely prepare for change, so when it happens, we feel vulnerable, and even