Spy heroine or an emblem of the culture of violence? 

The jokes and mockery about “Spy Queen” Jane Mugo were inevitable. From “My dog is named Hitler because it hits” to toppling over after displaying some questionable “taekwondo” moves in an investigative story aired on BBC recently, Ms Mugo served us one punchline after another. 

Western media seem to have a very strong appetite for voodoo-like stories from Africa, you might have thought, or even doubled up in laughter at the sheer ludicrousness of it all.

But to her employees, the punches served were of a different kind. The alleged “marine training” involved whipping grown men as they served food to “harden them”.

We watched in horror as the men, looking subdued and slave-like, lined up to be fed and whipped. The scenes were straight out of 12 Years a Slave or Django Unchained. 

That such scenes made their way to an international broadcast without any viewer discretion advice shows how much violence is normalised in our culture.

Training methods

While Ms Mugo's leadership skills are questionable and even laughable, she, like the Chinese boss who whipped a Kenyan employee back in February 2020, represents what we have generally learnt to accept: that violence is the answer to indiscipline or disobedience. 

But is it? 

Ms Mugo's “training” methods have pushed the limits of conventional conduct at the workplace, and her employees probably need counselling.

The International Labour Organisation acknowledges that “acceptable behaviour is often vague and cultural attitudes to what amounts to violence are so diverse that it is a very complex matter to define violence at work”.

But it also recognises violence (in all its different forms — physical, emotional, etc) as a major workplace problem. The “spare the rod, spoil the child” chorus by the National Parents Association and the Ministry of Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha in response to a surge in indiscipline among learners also seems to borrow from the school of thought that violence begets discipline.

Psychosocial support

As a primary school learner in the 1990s, I remember the flogging more than the content of the lessons. I was an A student with few disciplinary cases but teachers would find every little excuse to “instil discipline”. 

Prof Magoha asked parents “not to treat children like eggs”. There’s no easy answer to the wave of indiscipline. But blaming parents or asking them not to spare the rod does not even begin to solve it.

Our children require psychosocial support in school. But because violence has often been touted as a solution, this might take a long time to implement. Especially if the Education CS thinks it is tantamount to treating them like eggs. 

Perhaps it’s futile to ask for psychosocial support from a government that sends children to learn under trees, but we can state the standards we expect.

Miss Oneya comments on social and gender topics. @FaithOneya; [email protected]