Vote with your wallet this Covid season

 It has been half a year of financial meltdown where businesses have shut down and people lost jobs.

Health CAS Dr Mercy Mwangangi reads Covid-19 report on September 22. Covid-19 has negatively affected Kenya's economy. Photo/MOH

Even worse is what is yet to come since many people with loans and mortgages are not sure how they will service the facilities. Ultimately, some will face auctioneers and their properties carted away by auctioneers keen to keep defaulters at bay.

Despite the ruthless financial downturn, some people are still stuck in old ways of doing things. They love being overly philanthropic and have a keep-change attitude. Others are stuck in predatory telecommunication packages which fleece them all seconds of their lives. They charge an arm and a leg for a service which is offered reasonably cheaper elsewhere. As if life depends on them.

This season will call for making hard decisions. Decisions that will be unpopular yet wise. Strategies which will be tough. Tight.

Gone are days of reverse calling people with telcos they dumped. Or sending them money without asking which line to send because they may never get the money sent.

However, despite all this, we still have kind people. Kind enough to remind us of opportunities we may want to venture into and still be better.

It is very rude to encroach on other people’s privacy this season without having the courtesy to politely ask them if it is okay. I have been added to groups which I don’t consider appropriate. But being good-natured, I ask the admin if it was the right thing to do or they just abused my right and think it is okay.

Privacy

As a consequence, I have taken it upon myself to guard my privacy. You cannot add me to your groups anyhow and expect me to cooperate.  You have to live with the reality of sending me the link which I reserve the discretion of whether to join or not.

I say so because people’s generosity has been abused this corona season.

And the best treat I think is due to such encroachers is to push them back and tell them it is not okay to bully a friend just because you have their phone numbers.

To others, social capital maxim is unknown to them. When they contact you after a long period, know that they either have a burial or a wedding and you must contribute if you want to be considered a true friend by their standards.

They never take the virtue of honesty with high regard. Transparency and accountability is alien to them. They thrive in shades, shadows and opaqueness.

It is okay to ask what’s in the deal for you. Don’t just join any group and help others help themselves as your own forte is raped and raided.

In this day and age where people are quick to condemn and judge others without hearing their stories, someone may just get your cellphone contact and the first thing they do even before greetings is “Siku hizi huwa hunipigii”, as if it must be one way and they don’t ask themselves what they did that caused you not to call as often as you did. Shame!

My long and short here is, use your head more often than your heart. Even the heart is run from the head.

Sometimes, truth abhors benevolence and is a good friend with mercilessness. It is good to have a win-win outcome in any relationship be at home, work or with strangers. If I give you a shoulder to lean on, do not snore.

Grandma, the world changed since you left

Grandma, the world changed since you left

Kawele Kasovo's grandchildren escort her in this final journey. Today is grandma's first anniversary since she died.  Photo/MUSYOKA NGUI

A year ago today, you left us. We still remember you. The mwing’athiko seats in your compound are still around.

On the day of your demise, I was home. I remember the dawn departure. Upon getting the WhatsApp updates, since I was home alone, I let the goat kids go and drink their mothers’ milk, despite my fond love for tea. I rode the bike to hospital and found people in whispers.

Despite all that rude shock, we were able to disabuse the notion of grief and mourning.  As Sovoline, we were the lead organizers of your final journey.  

We chose blue for your grandchildren and white for children. There was no black since we were not mourning. The branded T-Shirts joined our wardrobes.

Initially, we took them and arranged them in one wardrobe and about two weeks after your death, no one wore them. After enough time to accept the reality and move on, everyone went to the hanger and removed their size and either packed it or wore and returned to work.

Grandma, things have changed since you went to be with the Lord. The world changed. Due to Coronavirus that befell the Earth at the turn of this year, people no longer meet often. In fact, public gatherings for nonessential events are not allowed.

But during your funeral, we ate, drank and partied. We didn’t mourn. As tradition dictates, after the ceremony, wazees remained all night to keep vigil.

I have never seen so many close relations in a long time. During your last journey, I reconnected with my primary school teachers and colleagues. But one fact remains, we will never forget you.

The annual get-togethers and other family events will go on. You were so many things to very many people. To some, you were a parent, a daughter, a sister and a friend. But to us Sovoline, you were a grandmother, a partner in crime, a teacher and the best friend.

Traditional African social fabric has been eroded by wazees

In summary

• ·         Youths lack role models to ape in a corner cutting society that give elders an edge for opportunities
• ·         The young people in my WhatsApp group agreed that they didn’t get Census jobs because of lack of qualifications.
• ·         Some even made fun of ‘connections’ that favoured wazees as they lost hope of what was meant by the youth being ‘leaders of tomorrow’

By Chris Vundi and Musyoka Ngui

African culture has been eroded by interaction of African societies with the West.

With the interaction, Africans are slowly losing their identity. A glance of a name of an African man will portray that person is a mzungu. Not first name nor last name. Middle name and ‘baptismal names’. I put baptismal in quotes because some have never been dipped in water for Holy Baptism and those that have don’t follow the commandments of the Bible.

In my shallow knowledge, I understand that being baptised connotes being born again. Leaving old ways and embracing new lifestyle. Much like being saved in Christianity. But you’ll find an African with Christian names but engaged in rotten corruption scandals and other immoralities.

I don’t profess moral highroad but what I find hypocritical and being later day Pharisees is the notion of preaching water and drinking wine-literary and figuratively.

Musyoka Ngui coauthors this piece to remind the Kenyan society that wazees have been a let town to Kenyan youth. Photo/FILE

Nowhere is the rot of African morals exemplified more than in Kenyan public service transport- PSVs. I’ll cut both ways.

Police bribery

This being Africa, there is no denying that people are crammed together and the number written as the maximum loading is ignored for profit of the entrepreneur at the expense of the commuters. The passengers. The police who are supposed to check overloading don’t and won’t mind getting a bribe and looking the other way as the overloaded and speeding PSV flout all rules of the book. Some end up causing horrible crashes which could be avoided if traffic rules were enforced and observed.

In the same matatu, you’ll find an elder standing while a youth sitting. Granted, African decency doesn’t provide for such a situation but why does an elderly board a full PSV? Anyway, they could have run out of options as a whole African village could be boasting of a single PSV which if it leaves you in the morning, you better cancel your plans for the whole day-however urgent.

African Politician

But the worst rot of African decency is in politics. People who are entrusted with keeping watch of government becomes the first to breach the same laws. The recent proposals to increase MPs 17 allowances when punda amechoka clearly underline the selfish nature of our politicians. Some tell the youth to employ themselves when they themselves have never employed themselves in anything.

Big names are implicated in corruption, some resign, some don’t. Life goes on. Any convictions? Children lack role models who work hard and make it in life and can be aped. The common cadre is the need for short cut which involves plunder and disregard of all common decencies.

Perhaps it’s time to rewrite the African culture which was hereditary and authoritative in wazees teaching vijana to man up and do the right thing. When the wazees crowd out our vijanas in census jobs by taking leaves from government and private practice to snatch the opportunities from the young people, there is no hope. Kenya went to the dogs. That was my line in a comrades group that went unchallenged as the hopeless youths acknowledged that they didn’t get the census jobs because they don’t sit well with their local chiefs and none mentioned lack of qualifications. Some even, dejectedly, agreed that your qualification can be your disqualification in a deeply insecure public service. Sad but very true.

Meet Francis Kaivilu the author of the touching poem by the ailing Makueni girl, which has gone viral on social media

Francis Kaivilu

In summary

·         Faith Mwende Mailu has been battling Aplastic anaemia and needs Sh4 million treatment in India.

·         Well-wishers can send their support to paybill number 641179 or to KCB Makindu branch. Account name is Faith Mwende and the Account number is 1238753264

·         Thank you as you purpose to support Faith

Born on the windy side of the Mystical Nuu hill, in the interior parts of Mwingi Central Constituency in Kitui County, a young man was born some 27 years ago. Francis Kaivilu aka ‘Malenga Wa Nuu’ had never imagined that he would one day save a young soul from Makueni; an ailing 8 year old Faith Mwende Mailu who has touched the hearts of many on Kenyan social media by presentation of a heart moving poem penned down by the famous ‘Malenga’.

The young man who sat for his KCSE exam at Kyuso Boys’ Secondary School in 2011 before proceeding to Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC) for a diploma course in Radio Programs Production has been writing the best ‘Mashairi’ in Kitui, having made it to the provincial levels even during his high school days.

Touched hearts of many

Though the young man has never featured in the national arena as a Swahili Shairi (Poem) writer cum presenter and is currently not in any formal employment and only relying on freelance journalism for a living, he has still been touching the hearts of many within and outside Kitui County through his well-crafted pieces of entertainment whenever given a chance.

Being a trained journalist, the young man used his pen, a paper and his smartphone to actualize a dream which had proved hard even for the county government of Makueni to actualize and now, the young angel Faith Mwende is set to undergo a bone transplant in India and soon she would be free from the Aplastic Anaemia disease which had been threatening her life.

In the poem, the last line in every stanza read “Mama Margaret Kenyatta nisaidie, Aplastic anaemia Yanimaliza”,  whose  translation is to : Our mom Margaret Kenyatta help me from the pangs of Aplastic anaemia which is threatening to kill me.

Blood transfusion

For the last three years, the girl has been relying on monthly blood transfusion for her to remain alive and her parents had hit a snag in getting the KSh. 4 million needed as medical fee for her bone marrow transplant in India.

Faith Mwende recites a poem asking for medical support for  aplastic anaemia she's suffering from. The poem was written by Francis Kaivilu aka Malenga Wa Nuu

Through the well-crafted poem which was voluntarily penned down and trained to the ailing girl by the Kitui ‘Malenga’, coupled with the great power of social media as manifested by the rate at which the video clip has gone viral: the video managed to reach top Kenya government officials whom might chip in their hand to help the young suffering soul.

The act by the young man is a clear manifestation of how talented our youths are, and how if well supported they can change this country for better.

Ends.

Contact Francis Kaivilu

Tel: 0743-507-600

        0724-326-294

E-mail: franciskaivilu@gmail.com