A professor, regarded as the pinnacle of academic success, is 67 days unpaid, struggles to meet rent and family needs, and wonders whether the success he pursued was ever real.
This is the conflict explored in On the Uselessness of a Professor, a new one-man play by Dr. Fred Mbogo, produced, directed and performed by Martin Kigondu.
The play will be staged on April 25 at the Alliance Française Nairobi, as part of A Decade of Prevail Presents, marking 10 years of Prevail Presents.
The performance forms part of a double bill, scheduled for 6pm, following the closing staging of the Kenya Theatre Awards 2026 Two-Hander of the Year, Of Cords and Discord, also directed and performed by Kigondu and starring Mwikali Mary and Polyann Njeri.
In On the Uselessness of a Professor, Ephantus Gitonga Njogu (Martin Kigondu) is a lecturer invited to address colleagues at a union meeting held in the aptly named Frustration Square during a strike by university staff.
The strike is on its 40th day, while lecturers have gone more than two months without salary.
As he addresses fellow lecturers, Njogu looks back on the hopes that drove him into academia and the disappointment that followed. He pits the promise of education against unpaid salaries, parental responsibilities, marriage, and a profession that no longer offers the security he initially imagined.
“Professor Njogu is forced to laugh at himself as a professor, and wonder how he hungrily ever wanted to be what he now is. Wondering whether he is just a cog in a wheel hurtling down a dangerous road towards damnation,” Kigondu says.
The play raises questions about the purpose of modern education and whether current systems are preparing young people for opportunity, as well as whether government and institutions are meeting their commitments to lecturers through timely salaries and long-term welfare support.
Though centred on university life, the production uses one man’s story to examine frustrations facing workers across many professions.
“This could be anyone; an accountant, mechanic, swimming pool attendant, kiosk owner. But we are in academia, so we must come back to wonder: where is our school system taking us?” Dr. Mbogo says.
Away from campus, Professor Njogu is dealing with conflict at home. His children are demanding pocket money and bills remain unpaid. Back in his rural home of Ntugi, he is still expected to portray success as the educated son who made it.
This represents how society treats highly educated professionals, elevating them as symbols of success while overlooking their everyday struggles.
Mbogo describes the play as a light but contemplative work inspired by the familiar promise that education leads to success. He says humour is used to open space for reflection on education systems and work experiences.
“It is made in a light fashion, where he hopes the audience does not get too serious with the matter,” he said.
“In that atmosphere of ease, through a hearty laugh or three, the audience can think about a system that produces professionals that it will milk dry, and who feel let down by what they thought they had bargained for.”
Prevail Presents, founded by Kigondu, recently won Best Theatre Company of the Year at the Kenya Theatre Awards 2026. The company has built a strong reputation through productions such as Supernova, Blessed Be the Fruit, They That Have Missing Marks Shall Not Graduate! and PICHA, alongside short films including Sandcastles, Contained and Gatarashaine.