Fear Behaving Badly

Fear is the lack of knowledge. We fear what we do not understand, for example, we fear death, we fear going to somewhere new, we fear people we don’t understand and that's what leads us to our narrow points of views. In Kenya we fear our political class and don't understand them neither do they attempt to be understood. The enigma they surround themselves with helps them stay in office, which was until the Kenyan people learned their rights and got a new constitution. In about a year we will be going to the polls to elect the third president of the republic of Kenya in the transitional elections come August 2012 and as the situation stands, we have a cacophony of imperfect, fictitious and impracticable candidates who stand on the strands of their tribal backgrounds, characters and want to rule us by hook or crook. They lack moral character, patriotism even though they chant it at every opportunity, confidence and experience in being a leader. Being a politician does not necessarily make you a good leader. Like a good wine that matures with time, I say politicians will also get better with time and experience but as is evident in Kenya they become worse. We have been talking about mpigs and the tax issue but withdrawing the focus from the real issues such as insecurity, inflation, escalating prices of goods and most importantly the glaring inequalities in the trillion shilling budget.

In Kenya it pays to be an MP and have the ability to make noise like parrot. To date only about 30 mpigs have paid taxes, while the rest sit on their Asses and claim they will censure the president and prime minister for doing the right thing. Since when did it become acceptable to not do the right thing and complain about those who do so? It’s like a thief complaining that he should not be jailed because his neighbor did not go and rob someone when the opportunity presented itself. To you mpigs who have defied the taxman and stay defiant, I say your days are numbered and as such I see many of you languishing in your homes come the next transitional elections and wondering how to pay off the silly loans you have accumulated in your quest to be king greedy.

The federation of women lawyers in Kenya-FIDA is at it again. Lately since Kenya got a new constitution, they have taken to making it a point to contest every appointment the president makes. Citing lack of gender balance. In this case they have decided the recent appointment of military officers who will be in charge of the country in the next transitional elections should be nullified because there was no woman appointed. At the risk of drawing fire (pun intended) from the female readers, if a woman wants to be appointed to head the military or top positions in the military, they must prove themselves, join early and stay late. It is a mans world after all and they must play by the rules and stop using the gender card. As Kwamchesti Makokha said in politically correct last week, and I quote "putting women in charge would demoralize the country's defense forces, make them drink less beer, be overcome by cowardice to the point of fearing to die for their country."

Our “favorite” so called youth leader is back in the spot light for all that is wrong in moral standing and fiber in the youth today. First off the Mpig Sonko double parked his Subaru forester on Moi Avenue and went off to do some window-shopping. Upon returning he found the city council chaps had clamped his car tire and instead of acting like the rest of the mwananchi of Kenya and going to pay his fine for committing an offense, he decided the best course of action was to get his bodyguards to break the clamp in full glare of the amused public and ride off with the clamp into the sunset as a trophy. The next day, Sonko dressed like a reggae rafian complete with fake braided hair and bling, proceeded to Continental House, the offices of the mpigs and give an impromptu press conference declaring that if the police want to arrest him for destruction of council property and stealing it, they can do so. In addition he also dared the head of his sponsoring party Martha Karua to kick him out of the party if she so wanted. To the police and Kanjo, arrest him and show no one is above the law, to Martha for the sake of your piece of mind and not to be associated with this mad man who will eventually taint your image if he has not already done so, kick him out and move on. 

Granted no one who drives likes the kanjo people, when the public sees a so called “leader” and member of parliament breaking the law blatantly and with impunity they have to be asking themselves why do I have to play by the rules when others clearly do not. Rules are meant to govern a society and keep law and order. Imagine a lawless community that resembles the stories we hear, read and see on the TV of areas like Turkana, Northern Kenya and Somalia as a place to live. The words dead, buried and pushing up daisies comes to mind.

When I Was Growing Up

Back in the day when I was growing up as a child, I lived in an estate that made growing up so much fun. We had playgrounds to run around and have fun. Today’s zeal for housing has made it impossible to find a patch of green grass unless you pay through the nose and buy a house with a small garden in the leafy suburbs. With the playgrounds came monkey bars, swings, a slide made out of smooth concrete or metal. We generally had the space to play games such as bano aka marbles, bladder, Kati, cha baba cha mama, rounders’, statue, muchongwano and many more child hood games. At times we would go fishing and if truth be told catch small fish from the stream between Nairobi west and South C (Yes there was a stream there once) or catch tadpoles. Growing up was not only fun but also made you appreciate the simple things in life. At times you come across children playing a particular game that makes you mile with nostalgia or something that triggers your memory to an age when innocence was the order of the day and look back at our child hood days while reminiscing on the how much fun we had. 

These days being a child is so complex that it needs a manual. Instead of playing outside, the children of today only play indoors and frown on those that play out of the house as dirty and poor. Riding a bike was a common practice and a whole day affair. We would at times take a ride 15 or 20 kms away and see what is happening in another estate or visit a friend and be back home before our parents came home or found out we had been gone for the day. It was an adventure that molded us. One particular aspect of my childhood that I recall vividly were the movie vans and trucks. Back then watching a movie was the ultimate in entertainment and cinemas were synonymous with dating and showing affection. Woe on to you if you had not seen the latest Rambo, commando, Bruce lee or karate flick that had just come out. Video decks using cassettes were a novelty and not everyone had them as happens today with DVD players that are dime a dozen and as many in a single house as underwear. I remember the first movie cassettes I watched Tom and Jerry cartoons, Donald Duck and pink panther, later on the series Knight Rider, A-Team, Street Hawk, and, because our parents watched them, you started watching Dallas and Falcon crest. Then came the novelty that is the movie theaters. At the time 20th century fox was like the Mecca or heaven and extremely expensive. You were lucky if you got to go to Kenya cinema or Nairobi cinema. I frequented a place called Rainbow cinemas that is now shut down and run as some church. For a few privileged children, if you really behaved and were well off, the drive inn cinema on Thika Road was the place your parents took you at least once every holiday. We used to go watch movies at Rainbow cinema, town or the drive inn until one weekend Cinema Leo came with one of their trucks to the playground near home. It was a van with a screen that is set up and looks like a theater. In those days there were many trucks that would bring movies at night and everybody would gather around at night and at times pay or at times sit free and watch the movies including a news reel of events happening in Kenya and what baba Moi had “done for us” lately. Cinema Leo did not have lines to queue, seats to sit on, air-conditioned theaters, Pop corn, hot dogs or soda in paper cups. If you wanted those nonexistent entities, you had to be creative. You could buy a small sachet of biscuits, mkate nusu i.e. Elliots or Toasti bread half unsliced and for a drink you stole some of your mums treetop or Supadip juice that you had premixed into a plastic bottle or if you had money, you bought a bottle of Mirinda. The words incredibly delicious come to mind at this point and a big grin. 

If you were to retell this story to your son/daughter/nice/nephew today, they would think you were pulling their leg or just been silly to even suggest such a notion. Today’s children with the manual 1.0 are DVD movies, playing in the house with PlayStation or x box 360. If you have a 2.0 child they are worse and will want the Nintendo Wii, an iPod, iPhone and a Mac laptop to not only play their games but do homework. The very idea of sports outside the confines of the sitting room or TV room, is the 1 hour of PE they get in school. Worse still playing any sport for them if pushed, involves being driven to the school or field by the driver as taking a matatu is an alien idea, not that I do know where the ones heading to my house are even located. Football is now only referred to as soccer and strictly watched on TV and played on PlayStation 3, not outside with a ball made up of rolled up plastic bags tied with a rubber band or bladder while hide and seek is what they think you have done with the remote control for the TV when you don’t want them to watch cartoons like Ben 10. Todays children will no doubt sit and be talking about when they children just as I am but with a twist. I wonder if they will have had as much fun, adventure and learnt the true value of being dirty or a good thrashing with a slipper or stick from your mother and/or the house help for being hands down the dirtiest, filthiest kid they have seen at the end of the day. 

Like the omo advertisement says dirt is good, let your child play outside and with other kids, not only do they become well rounded but they also get social skills and learn to adapt to people, situations and they also learn. Next time your children are giving you a hard time or you just want them to experience the joys of out door activities, switch off the power from your house mains and force them out. Kids need to play and discover. There is an inner child in all of us and you could also join them for a remake of your child hood and teach them the games that gave you so much joy and had a hand in making you who you are today.