Page 79 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 14

Leadership

meant to increase students’ ‘under- situates these ‘smoky slum escapees’ In fact, Patta herself says in her
standing of a topic’. They clarified at the ‘heart’ of an industry that, video that “Joan’s tuition fees were due;
that those who purchase work from first and foremost, did not originate William was battling to pay his rent and
them are not meant to submit the from and is not restricted to Kenya, so they turned to the global essay-for-hire
work as their own, even though the as you can see from the quote from industry.” She continues “Here’s how it
company said they did not believe The Insider above and as you will works; the Kenyans advertise themselves on
that their clients used their work find from any quick search online. reputable websites with hip names like Ace
correctly. Naivety or deception? The Wikipedia also lends a hand in the My Homework and Essay Jedii. These
Insider in 2016 wrote an article on history behind the issue of essay are legitimate platforms offering academic
this topic that was based on a New mills or paper mills: “The idea be- assistance like tutoring, but some students
York Times piece, saying “Millions hind term paper mills can be dated use them to pay writers who would do
of essays are produced in coun- back to the mid-nineteenth century anything for them; from an urgent essay to
tries including Kenya, India, and in which “paper reservoirs” were an entire college degree.”
Ukraine every year to be turned in located in the basements of frater-
by American college students.” In nity houses. Otherwise known as These essay mills, and their clientele
fact, according to Patta’s report for “fraternity files,” these essay banks and freelance writers are found all
CBS News, “The Kenyans are so were practices in which students around the world. In the Guardian’s
good at the job that sometimes they shared term papers and submitted article, the owner of that firm is a
get asked to dumb things down. work that had been done by other UK company that charges between
Between them they say they have students. These essay banks inspired 400 – over 1,000 pounds per essay.
enabled American students to cheat the commercialization of ghost- So, to try to pin this on ‘pover-
their way through everything from written essay-writing practices. As ty-stricken’ students in Nairobi is
US history to engineering, even early as the 1950s, advertisements either laziness on her part or some
medicine. were circulating college campus that other game is afoot. And to call
described services that included those platforms reputable is laugh-
May I draw your attention to some ghostwritten work for dissertations, able at best, especially when you
very important points that we can theses, and term papers. consider that the CBS anchor in
pick up from Patta and her sto- studio admitted that they did not
ry, which we need to focus on as In conjunction with this practice, hear back from the companies men-
Afrikans? First is her psychological the changing attitudes of students in tioned, which suggests to me that
use of the slum setting to explain the 1960s and 1970s started to stray nobody had occasion to speak to
to her audience the underprivileged away from diligent and engaged them, let alone vet their reputations.
backgrounds from which these course work because they saw an And you really have to visit these
Nairobi-based ‘billionaire enablers’ emphasis on the benefits of com- websites to find out the other reason
are said to come from. The next munity involvement. A new focus why I am laughing. How sly and
thing that she did was gloss over on activities outside of the class- awful of these Kenyans to ‘exploit’
the facts, saying that Nairobi is the room took away from time to focus these ‘reputable’ firms who are only
‘heart’ of this ‘billion-dollar indus- on class work, thus promoting these ‘offering academic assistance like
try’. If William, from her story is writing services throughout college tutoring’.
one of those at the ‘heart’ of this campuses.
billion-dollar industry and is earning It is interesting how Patta got to the
$2000 per month, or $24,000 per Soon, actual businesses were pro- end of her story without whole-
year, with those he hires earning viding custom-written essays for heartedly rebuking the American
even less than that, where are these students in exchange for compensa- students who the poverty-stricken
billions? Where are the Kenyans tion. They were located near college billion-dollar hub of essay writers
at this ‘heart’ who have them? campuses. One could walk into a ‘would do anything for’ so as to
She didn’t make mention of them building and peruse pricing pam- ‘enable them to cheat’. Or how she
turning down her attempts to reach phlets, speak to someone directly concluded her narrative without
them, she did not list their names or to place an order, or possibly make unearthing the real Kenyan billion-
the names of their businesses. I’m a selection from a vault of recycled aires at the ‘heart’ of this industry,
not saying Kenyans are not partici- research papers stored in the base- who are quite evidently not William
pating in this business. I’m pointing ment of these businesses.” or Joan as the calculations I shared
out a glaring hole in her story that will quite quickly help you realize.

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