The word ‘free’ has become one of the most misused terms in Kenya’s political and social landscape. We are constantly told of free education, free maternal health care, free this and free that.
Yet, anyone who scratches beneath the surface knows there is nothing free about these services. The truth is simple: someone is paying for it, and that someone is the Kenyan taxpayer-you and me.
Politicians are masters at using the word ‘free.’ It is a soothing term, one that wins applause at rallies and earns political mileage. ‘Free’ sounds compassionate, people-centred, and visionary. It is a gift-wrapped word meant to make citizens feel valued and cared for. But in reality, it is a political coinage designed to make you love and trust the politician who utters it.
What is worrying, however, is how this misnomer has seeped deep into the psyche of ordinary Kenyans. Take, for instance, free primary and secondary education. While the government subsidises tuition, schools still grapple with inadequate infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, and underpaid teachers.
Parents, especially in rural areas, have been made to believe that the phrase free education absolves them of any responsibility in supporting their children’s learning environment.
Many have washed their hands off school development projects, leaving boards of management and principals stranded when it comes to building classrooms, maintaining facilities, buying essential equipment or even paying wages for persons hired to tend school grounds.
This mindset has eroded the spirit of harambee-the proud national philosophy of pulling together to achieve common good.
Where communities once rallied to build schools, dig boreholes, and support hospitals, today many fold their arms and simply chant: serikali saidia.
Citizens wait for the government to come to their rescue, forgetting that ‘government’ has no money of its own; it spends what taxpayers contribute.
If Kenya is to grow, it must reclaim the spirit of harambee and reject the comfort of the misused word ‘free.’
Citizens must be reminded that their role in building the nation does not end with paying taxes; it extends to supporting schools, hospitals, and community projects.
Politicians, on the other hand, must stop hiding behind the cheap slogan of ‘free’ and start engaging in honest conversations about sustainable development and shared responsibility.
The so-called ‘free maternal health care’ paints a similar picture. Hospitals are underfunded, drugs are often in short supply, and women are still asked to buy basic supplies when they go into labour. The gap between the promise of ‘free’ and the reality of service delivery is glaring.
The tragedy of this misnomer is not just in misleading language but in the slow erosion of personal and communal responsibility. ‘Free’ has turned citizens from active participants in development into passive consumers of political promises.
The nation loses when its people forget that progress is achieved not by handouts but by collective effort.
The truth is that nothing is free. Any medicine dispensed, every classroom built, every nurse’s salary paid, every textbook bought comes from taxes-our taxes. The question, then, is not whether services should be free, but whether the taxes we pay are being put to effective, transparent, and accountable use.
Until then, every time you hear the word free, remember this: you are paying for it. Maybe, just maybe, its time we revisited and embraced terms like affordable and cost-sharing.