A lockdown is a grim possibility during this year’s pandemic.

However, if it happens, it sure will cast a shadow above the lives of those living below the poverty line…

The majority of our population.

THE POORMAN’S PROBLEM

With millions of Kenyans surviving on a hand to mouth routine, even the current disruption of activity is too much of a burdern to bear let alone a full scale lockdown.

A walk through an informal settlement like Mathare would reveal the true picture of desparation on people’s faces…

With the middleclass rushing to the supermarket whenever supplies run short, the poorest of the poor have no option but to square it out on the streets in order to try to make ends meet…

Most of them retire before seven to escape the curfew with barely enough to feed their families.

For most of them, the problem is not being at home but having enough to feed their families.

Many of them spend their last coin purchasing food expensively not knowing where the next meal will come from.

The life of the poor person is a life of constant struggle…

A constant struggle for calories (as one BBC journalist put it).

A life of toiling for meagre returns which cannot even put enough food on the table.

USELESS DEGREES

But the greatest irony of it all is that of a nation producing a large number of graduates incapable of solving some of these most pressing problems.

For the most part, science degrees are classified as ‘less marketable’ due to mass closure and relocation of industries.

Remember that possessing a marketable academic degree in Kenya is tantamount to employability.

That being said, the confusion a chemistry, biology or physics degree creates renders it of less use in today’s Kenyan job market…

But what if science graduates stop thinking of employment and start looking for ways they could apply their knowledge in solving the nation’s greatest problems creating opportunities in the process?

THE POORMAN’S SOLUTION

What if a chemist graduate explores techniques of nutrient recovery from wastewater flowing through the slums…

Sewage has high nitrate and phosphate concentrations…

Nutrients that could be captured and stored in porous material such as biochar or silicates to be used as slow release fertilizers in food production…

What if biologists and chemists could find ways to disinfect water in run off streams in informal settlements?

Microorganisms are the main reason we fear drinking or using contaminated water…

Besides, not all people can afford chlorine therefore novel and affordable ways of water disinfection could avail the much needed water to the poor for sanitation and cooking…

What if physicists could find ways to mix soils to produce soils with good physical properties capable of growing crops?

Waterlogged and fast draining soils prevent crop development during cultivation…

What if the same physicists design sack or vertical gardens used by households to grow their own vegetables reducing their food budget?

What if chemists and biologists sensitize and train people on compost production techniques using domestic wastes?

The compost could be used to enrich soils for good vegetable yield…

IN CONCLUSION

Perhaps tackling our most pressing problems lie in thinking beyond employment.

Perhaps it calls for applying the knowledge we see as ‘useless’ in creative ways alleviating the suffering of many.

There can be no ‘useless’ degree because the knowledge conveyed can always be used to solve problems around us.

Photo credit: Ekrulila via Pexels