Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has delivered an indictment of modern Kenyan parenting, asserting that the country’s escalating social problems, from school arsons to youth violence, directly stem from parents neglecting their fundamental duty to instill values in their children.
Speaking at the Golden Jubilee Sunday service at AIC Plainsview in Nairobi, Murkomen urged parents to reflect honestly on whether they are investing in their children the same way their own parents did in them.
“The challenge for parents is to ask ourselves whether we are doing the same things our parents did for us. Do we have time for our children? We reminisce about being taught and whipped in the good old days, yet we do nothing about it for our children and grandchildren,” he stated.
The CS depicted a generation of parents so consumed by work and professional ambitions that they have effectively left their children’s upbringing to digital devices and institutions ill-equipped to replace the home.
“Part of our country’s problems is that our generation has failed to create time to do what our parents and grandparents did. We have become too busy and committed to workplaces, leaving computers, phones, television, and PlayStations to raise our children because we no longer spend time with them,” Murkomen explained.
He noted that this absence of parental presence has disconnected children from the foundational faith and moral experiences that shaped previous generations, including Sunday school, memory verses, youth camps, evangelism, and crusades.
Murkomen directly attributed this parenting vacuum to the disturbing incidents of youth violence witnessed nationwide, such as children setting fire to schools and harming fellow students.
“If you see our children burning schools and their friends, it is a reflection of the things we failed to do daily in our private closets for our children, and it is manifesting itself in the nation,” he said, adding that parents who neglect this duty are often the first to deflect blame onto the government.
“The easiest person to blame is to ask, ‘Where is the Minister of Security? Where was the teacher? Where is the government?’ The government cannot raise your children. They will not teach good manners to your children,” he stated pointedly.
“The teachers in school now teaching your children are Gen Z teachers who are struggling, first of all, to bring up a family. You are busy with your job, thinking that paying school fees ends your responsibility. Unknown to you, your child is being brought up by someone who has personal challenges,” he warned.
He reserved sharp criticism for parents who shield their children from any form of accountability, arguing that the collective resistance to discipline has rendered both home and school ineffective.
“As parents of our generation, we avoid reprimanding children, avoid punishment, and resist homework. Everything is negotiated with the child and teacher. Teachers become hands-off, only teaching and leaving. No mentoring, no discipline, no guidance. Failure at home and failure at school,” Murkomen lamented.
“The solution is in Sunday school. The solution is to have properly functioning churches and parents who can bring their children to the house of God where they can be taught in faith,” he said.
