Thread by @DrCarrieM

Apart from ALL that is disgusting about these taxes, I am just defeated by what they will mean for me as a Lecturer in a Public University in Kenya.

One, we normally have no Internet connectivity on campus. Sometimes uni fails to pay providers and it gets cut.

Sometimes, they pay, but such a limited service, that it takes hours of buffering to even get your Gmail open. I mean HOURS. To open Gmail. Much less download anything for students to read, or watch.

Internet connectivity on campus was at 10/100. It is likely to fall to 2.

Now, with limited books in our libraries, we rely on, admittedly, bootleg versions from the Internet for ourselves and our students. From here on out, access to books & articles for educational purposes will become even more precarious. We are not reading enough. It'll get worse.

{By the way, MPs and Mr Uhuru, did you think we only access the internet to make noise on social media? Or to access porn or bootleg versions of films? We have such varied uses like you wouldn't believe. This high tax on internet bundles has no rationale}.

{Was just in the UK for ASAUK, and I kid you not, all public spaces have free, high-speed Wi-Fi. Sure, we resist having countries in the north be the "benchmark", but surely, on this one, instead of taking steps forward, we are taking steps back!}

Now. My students need internet for their own purposes. It is the window outside their own world-views. They don't particularly earn lots of money. Taxing even these young people is likely to be a barrier - they will only buy bundles for their most important stuff -

- which is most likely NOT going to be the assignment I have given them to check out a YouTube documentary about how Kanye West revolutionised the use of voice in hip-hop {see it here }.
This tax can be seen as a deliberate attempt to dumb us down.

This places the burden of providing academic material to students on me, the tutor.

Let's not even start to discuss how financially pressed lecturers are. I've done many threads on that. Suffice it to say, it will be expensive to me to keep downloading texts, videos, books, etc

Now. Confession. Sometimes I go to a nice coffee shop and nurse a caramel macchiato as I use the free WiFi to download stuff, including assignments {the burden on students to buy bundles to send me soft-copies of their assignments is going to be the narrative in class btw}

I expect one of two things to happen - either the free WiFi in these places (some so overpriced and overrated) is going to become a thing of the past; or the prices of the caramel macchiato is going to go up. Or both. Because of the wider taxes anyway.

Home internet? We kind of removed that from our household budget a few months ago during the infamous lecturer's strike. Yes, we don't have internet in our home. I console myself with the fact that when I open my WiFi, the long list of neighbours' signals is also no longer there.

That told me, anecdotally, that when things become a bit tight, home internet is one of those things we remove from the budget as non-essential. Bora uhai, yes? If urgent, someone will hot-spot their phone, but that has become unsustainable, and will become more so with the taxes

Essentially, we're being squeezed not just tighter in terms of taxes, but also back in time. We are being taken back to the days when we used to line up in banks to withdraw money - because mobile phone transactions are going to be beyond affordability.

We are being taken to the days when we used to send money upcountry via "other" means. "Tuma na ya kutoa" is going to become an ominous statement, a statement of verbal cruelty and violence. For me, that means anyone you pay, even your Nanny, you must pay extra.

Not sure what the coping mechanisms will be with accessing social media, which is part of my academic work and research. But we shall see.
I might need to apply for a grant to help me afford internet bundles at this rate though 😖. How annoying. And humiliating.

Finally, we are being forced to see Internet usage as a luxury. In 2018. Surely! How do these guys expect us to compete at the global level and produce "fully baked" (now that Unis are seen as kitchens) graduates when a basic thing such as Internet is beyond affordability???

How is my student, who is on-track to get a First Class for instance, supposed to be level with a UK student who gets free WiFi on public Arriva or Stage Coach buses? Can they write the same, when they don't access books the same? Can they develop an intellectual vocabulary?

Can they access different sites and see things that allow them to imagine a different Kenya, a different Africa, if they cannot afford overpriced bundles?

We have been killing public education in bits. Now we want to kill self-education in one fell swoop.