Controversial Kenyan lawyer Miguna Miguna reignited his dispute with renowned journalist Larry Madowo after the latter disclosed having undertaken 45 foreign trips in one year.
The disagreement originated when Larry Madowo sought to inspire secondary school students who did not pass their final national examination, the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, emphasizing that a low grade in the exam would not dictate the trajectory of their lives beyond high school.
“I ‘failed’ KCSE, but I did 45 foreign trips last year – 27 countries. My B- in the national exam was so bad I was getting pushed to repeat Form 4! Mtu asikupimie hewa (Don’t let anyone determine how to live),” said Mr Madowo earlier this week.
Larry Madowo is an empty toothy African buffoon. White men who run @CNN prefer primitive buffoons like him. He thinks that travelling around the world is a great achievement. He is just an exalted Kariuki Chotara! We won’t let him misguide our children that learning and academic… pic.twitter.com/HZjBIBVlPR
— Dr. Miguna Miguna (@MigunaMiguna) January 10, 2024Did you read this?
In response to Madowo's widely circulated post, Miguna Miguna criticized him, expressing in harsh and unprintable terms that foreign travel is not an accomplishment worthy of boasting about.
Miguna added, “We won’t let him misguide our children that learning and academic excellence mean nothing. He was dispatched to Daystar. He didn’t fail. He should have encouraged the youngsters to study hard, focus, and never give up pursuing their dreams. The alleged “failure” and foreign trips weren’t necessary…
He can speak his truth without glorifying his perceived academic failure. I’ve not stopped him. I’m simply telling our kids to continue aiming high and not to be misled that Larry Madowo’s travels equals success, or that every kid who performs poorly will be hired by CNN. We must encourage our kids to study hard and try to score as high grades as they can.”
Many others agreed with Miguna’s position, affirming that foreign travel is not a measure of success.
“I agree with you Dr! Traveling around the world is not a measure of success. The most important aspect should be how his travels have helped to improve the livelihood of Kenyans. Academic success remains important,” said Dr Turiheihi.
“If getting B- represents failure to him then I don’t know. Some of us struggled to get that B- and were really happy. Again, how’s travelling the world related to academic excellence,” said Mark Ochola.
“If our education system was designed to bring the best out of every soul, we would be somewhere as country. For those whose high is just to travel around the world without making any significant difference to their society, let them glorify failure. On this, I agree with MM,” added Henry Kabogo.
Nevertheless, some disagreed with Miguna's sentiments. The feud between Miguna Miguna and Larry Madowo traces back seven years when a live television show, hosted by Larry, involving Miguna went awry.
The disagreement escalated into a war of words, ultimately leading to Larry banning Miguna from the Sidebar show that aired on NTV at that time.
