Narrating an incident that happened sometimes back while he was invigilating an exam, Dr Mwangi Wokabi, Director Egerton University, Nairobi Campus has very few kind words for students who don’t consider decency an important factor.
“When my students came for class scantily dressed, I felt they didn’t respect me as there senior and so I decided to move to a private university where dressing is regulated,” says an Associate Professor, who requested anonymity because the private university he works for has rules on staff speaking to media.
But in a terse rejoinder, the students we spoke to say the lecturers are being a bit old schooled and losing focus. One Egerton University student, who only identifies herself as Emma, argues that she wears what makes feel her good and doesn’t care what others think.
“What does my dressing has to do with the lecturer’s teaching?” asks Emma, her arms akimbo and visibly irritated. When prodded that her open-mindedness may have negative implications to her social and career progress she snorts out and refutes such thinking, adding that she doesn’t belong to the group of half-empty glass but rather the half full.
“Why can’t people assume that my liberal thinking towards dressing will open brighter doors for me instead?” she queries, all the time pulling down her bubble above-knee-length dress and constantly wind breaking with her hands to prevent it for being flapped sideways.
Kendi Kiogora and Faith Mwita concur with Emma. For Faith, a student at Moi University, nobody should dictate what she wears. Her friend Kendi, a UoN student, argues she has no time for shallow minded people who chew over others dressing.
“Why can’t people give us spaces?” asks Kendi.
Christabel Kwamboka, a Second year student studying law at Mount Kenya University thinks dressing is an individual choice and students shouldn’t be demonized for wearing what they feel okay with.
“If I want to wear tights or micro, mini, midi, ballerina or tea length skirts I don’t why it should bother anyone”. Observes Ms Christabel
With this, debate is raging as effort is put in trying to reach a consensus between the students’ stance and the lecturers thinking. While students argue that their definition of decency should be respected uncompromisingly, the university staffs think otherwise.
