Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has criticised what he termed as a growing trend of parents delegating their responsibilities to teachers, nannies, religious leaders and the internet, warning that the shift is contributing to a morally fragile and increasingly defiant generation.
Speaking during a community event, Murkomen said many children today lack firm family mentorship, a contrast he attributed to the strong parental guidance provided in previous decades.
“We are here in our 30s and 40s because our mothers in the 60s and 70s took care of us,” he said. “Most parents today have abdicated their role. I want to implore my generation and those after us to rebuild that relationship with our children.”
Murkomen called for families to invest more deeply in nurturing values, faith and traditions that shape character. He urged parents to be deliberate about the principles they instil at home, saying each family should establish its own guiding culture.
“As a family, you must build your family traditions—your family faith, your family ways,” he said. “Let us ingrain in our children values that come from love, the way our mothers Unis, Lois, Jane, Zepora and Sara did.”
He illustrated the pressures modern parents face using an example from his own home, recounting moments when his children asked for mobile phones because their peers had them.
“They tell me, ‘Dad, I want a phone.’ And I tell them it’s not time for them to have a phone,” he said. “When they say, ‘But others have phones,’ I remind them that is their family. In our home, we have our own traditions.”
Murkomen acknowledged that evolving school requirements sometimes force parents to adapt, but insisted that families must retain authority over their own value systems.
He expressed concern that increased access to smartphones and the internet exposes young people to drugs, alcohol, pornography and global influences that make parenting more challenging.
“Our children are not the way we were,” Murkomen said. “They have access to information from all over the world. But if you have that fellowship at home, the child will remember the foundation you laid, even if he stumbles.”
He urged mothers and younger parents especially to recommit to raising children anchored in faith, discipline and enduring values.
“It is time we invest in our children—invest in family values, faith and traditions that last,” he said. “Let people look at your child and say, ‘This is Jane’s child,’ or ‘This is David’s family.’ These are the values we must engrain in our children.”
Murkomen concluded by encouraging families to rebuild the strong mentorship structures that once defined Kenyan households, saying it is the only way to secure a responsible and morally upright generation.
