Nairobi News

Controversial Kenyan lawyer Miguna Miguna renewed his beef with fellow compatriot, renowned journalist Larry Madowo, following the latter’s revelation about travelling away on 45 foreign trips abroad in one year.

It all began when Larry Madowo attempted to encourage secondary school students who had not passed their final national examination, the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, that a low grade in the final exam would not determine the outcome of their lives past 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.

In a rejoinder after Madowo’s post went viral, Miguna Miguna took on him, telling him in unpalatable and unprintable terms that foreign travel is not an achievement worth bragging about.

Also read: ‘Don’t threaten Judiciary,’ Miguna’s advice to Ruto

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.

Also read: How to make Larry Madowo’s popular street food: Rolex

However, others disagreed with Miguna’s sentiments, as sampled below:

“Madowo is not a buffoon and definitely not a clown. He’s living his dream ~ traveling around the world and working at the same time. He got a B- in his KCSE, he did not ‘fail’. Academic excellence or otherwise should not and cannot be used to define humankind,” said Wanjohi Mwai.

Miguna Miguna and Larry Madowo’s beef dates back seven years when a live television show in which Larry was hosting Miguna went awry.

The two ended up engaging in a war of words and in the end, Larry banned Miguna from the Sidebar show that aired on NTV back then.