REPUBLIC OF KENYA

THE PRESIDENCY
MINISTRY OF DEVOLUTION AND PLANNING
SPEECH BY ANNE WAIGURU, OGW CABINET SECRETARY,
MINISTRY OF DEVOLUTION AND PLANNING DURING THE
ANNUAL GRADUATION CEREMONY AT BROOKHOUSE SCHOOL
ON THE 12TH OF JUNE 2015

THE DIRECTOR, MR. OCONNOR,

FELLOW PARENTS,
THE CLASS OF 2015,
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
Thank you for inviting me to be part of this special occasion. A
graduation ceremony is a time to look back, take stock of our lives
and see how far we have come. Its a time to recollect all the
years of prodding and pushing; of exasperation and jubilation; of
long nights of worry and above all, a time to be thankful for Gods
grace for seeing us this far. Yes indeed, even we as parents have
come a long way.
Like I said, today is not a just a day for the graduating students, it
is also a proud day for your parents, grandparents, siblings and
family members who have made enormous sacrifices for you, who

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have encouraged you in trying moments, who have prayed

relentlessly for you and who have shown forbearance in times
when you may have been particularly stubborn. I would know
because I am a mother to one Ian Waiguru who also graduates
today. Today is as much my day as it is his. It is the small
prodding, affirmations, and even sometimes cajoles and threats by
those of us who love you and want you to succeed that have
brought you this far.
A round of applause is in order then for parents and
family.
Today, I have a most difficult task, I am faced with the dual
challenge of sharing something that is meaningful and which will
be edged in your memories linked to this great day; yet I am
keenly aware that I am speaking to a generation that has
distinguished itself by reducing communication to 140 characters.
We now live in the age of OMG, ROFL, THX, L8R, BRB, and the
ever present LOL. I am reliably informed that you teenagers dont
even bother laughing at jokes anymore, you just exclaim LOL. So I
will try and be reasonably brief, so stay with me.
As you launch into the next phase of your lives there is an aspect
of your reality that I feel is necessary to speak about. I am acutely
aware that I am speaking to young people who are more
privileged than the average Kenyan young person. Just by being in
Brookhouse, you have access to the best teachers, the best

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learning facilities, and the best school environment. For most, this
is made possible by the financial ability of your parents. Thanks to
the endeavors and hard work of your parents, you have in many
ways experienced a privileged or even a sheltered existence. Some
of you may never know, that when it rains in this city, matatu
fares go up by sometimes even 200% and most commuters are
not able to raise that kind of money and therefore have to walk to
and from work; or that theres a child who stays home for most of
the term because they couldnt raise the school fees; or that most
children in rural villages, have only one underwear, that is washed
and dried over an open fire. In other words, most of us here, are
not aware, that our life is a far cry from the average Kenyans life.
We ought to be truly grateful to God, for granting us this blessing,
freely and graciously.
Why is this important, why would the Cabinet Secretary for
Devolution and Planning, a mother herself to one of the children
sitting here today, choose to remind you of the tremendous
privilege that is yours? It is because I am very conscious as a
parent that with privilege comes a dangerous companion; what I
call The Privilege Trap. I like theorizing, so this is my own
interpretation of what I have observed over the years, and a
lesson I would like to share.
What does the Privilege Trap do? Firstly, it keeps us within social
circles of those who are like us. So, despite the fact that we may
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be part of institutions and social settings that pride themselves in

diversity, our relationships have very little diversity. We interact in
what are mostly homogenous environments, and keep amongst
ourselves. This I observed with my son not to long ago, when he
went for a birthday party, and every youngster who was in that
party was either a Brookhouse school student, Peponi or the like.
The challenge with lack of diversity is that it limits our exposure to
experiences

manifestly

different

from

ours,

it

limits

our

appreciation of life. It reduces the color in our lives and limits our
imagination. Diversity they say is the spice of life, so when it is
lacking I guess the anti-thesis holds life is bland!

Secondly, the Privilege Traps builds in us a sense of entitlement.

Many of you here today, only need to ask for a book and two
come, a phone and the latest Apple version arrives, a vacation and
a choice destination comes your way. So you grow up thinking
that the world owes it to you, to meet your demands when you
make them; that the world is here to serve you, as your parents
have done or the helpers in your homes have done. The tragedy
of this is that life does not always give us what we believe we are
entitled to. The sense of entitlement not only makes us hit out at
people who dare not give us our entitlement, it also robs us of
the ability to negotiate, to plead, to humble oneself, to serve
another 7 years so to speak all in a bid to get what we aspire
towards.

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The Privilege Trap robs us the joy and simple pleasure of

appreciating blessings. Because all we ever need is available,
theres no thrill, no joy in acquiring anything. Theres no
excitement in a new set of uniform after a whole year of wearing a
patched set. This trap makes us take life for granted as life
becomes predictable and obvious, our entitlement!
The third effect of the Privilege Trap is a lack of drive, an absence
of hunger. I know some you are thinking, surely I am hungry
right now. No its not that kind of hunger. I am referring to a
ferocious drive for success that makes you never give up even in
the face of the most intimidating odds. Its the ferocious drive that
made a young accountant from Muranga who against all odds
took a small nondescript building society that was technically
insolvent in 1993 and built it into the largest bank in Africa by
customer numbers (8.4million clients). It is that ferocious drive
that makes young Kenyans wake up early in the bitterly morning
cold of Iten to run tens of kilometers every day. Thats the kind of
hunger I am taking about. When you dont need to make it to
survive, this state of mind robs you of the invention that is driven
by necessity. So you have to work twice as hard to cultivate it
within you.

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I realise that as parents of privileged children we need to work

twice as hard to get our children to dream, to think out of the box,
and to want to make this world a better place not just for
themselves but for others. This is why I have pushed Ian over and
over again, and if you watch his TEDX talk, he says so. As Parents
we have to be deliberate in never letting that hunger die. As Ian
puts it the road to your dreams is a tunnel and your goals are
your flash light in the tunnel. Without hunger, you can never draw
out this flashlight to light your tunnel.
Like most parents here I am proud of what Ian has turned out to
be. Today here, many of you have it in you to just be the same
and even more. Ignite that hunger that will drive you to do so.
Finally the privilege Trap builds in us a quiet and unseen insecurity
about our capacities and abilities. An inner voice continually tells
us that maybe we are not as good as society holds us out to be.
To prove to the world that we are as good as the things we own
and the positions our names and our possessions have accorded
us, we hit out at anyone who dares suggest that we are not equal
to our privilege. We detest criticism and lash out at critics. We
must have the final word. We treat an attack on our views as an
attack on us.
This then, is the Privilege Trap. I ask you, dear graduands to avoid
this Trap. Seek diversity, cultivate humility, and acknowledge that

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you are not your name, your position or your possessions. You are
a unique human being created in the image of God, but with the
normal human weaknesses and frailties that the rest of mankind
has. Learn to walk through life with a sense of gratitude for your
privilege, and never look down on others not as fortunate.
I know many of you here today, would like to go to colleges
abroad, and pursue careers that will give you the most in terms of
prestige or even pay. Few of us would choose careers that are
humble, that dont promise

to pay us six digit figures.

Unfortunately many of us make life decisions based on the wrong

premise. We see money and status as an end in itself rather than
a means to an end. Id like to encourage you to look at yourself as
a vessel, whose aim is to spread good and make the world a
better place, then choose your lifes path based on this. Figure out
what your passion is and work towards making a career out of it.
Like the late Steve Jobs said, Your work is going to fill a large part
of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what
you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to
love what you do and achieve a higher purpose than yourself. So
serve a poor community as a doctor, and love it; compose music
that soothes children living with cancer and love it; give of yourself
in service and kindness, and love every bit of it!
As I conclude, let me say something. A couple of years ago an
ordinary girl from an ordinary background took up a difficult
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assignment, an assignment that did not come with much in the

way of an instruction manual. The lady was not sure what lay
ahead of her but she had faith that she had developed certain
habits that would serve her well in her new assignment and she
had faith in God and in the vision that her boss had set out for
her. Today that lady stands in front of you deeply honored to have
been a central part of the transformational agenda that is central
to the Jubilee Governments agenda.

I am a testimony that you dont have to have a certain surname or

come from a certain background to make it in life. I am living
proof that with God, hard work and excellence pays off. If you
work hard and distinguish yourself in what you do; strive for
excellence at all costs; one day, people will notice, and pick you
out from the crowd and raise you up.
So graduants, cultivate the right habits, follow your dreams and
have faith in God, choose a career that serves a greater purpose
than your self and love it, and dont fall in the privileged trap

Congratulations Brookhouse class of 2015. God Bless you all.

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