DETERMINERS OF POLITICAL DIRECTION IN KENYA

This year being an election year in Kenya, or so we thought, most homesteads find themselves watching and listening to the various political aspirants each and every evening thanks to our media houses. News time has turned out to be campaign time for the political aspirants as each scrambles to present the best of him or her. I would like to call this, “home-screen campaigning” because I have realized that most Kenyans tend to actually make the decision of who their candidate of choice is on what they saw or heard in the media. It must be known to our aspirants that their presence or absence in the media contributes a lot to the voter’s decision.

 After a few observations that I made in our own home and even when I visiting at a friend, I realized that a political talk always came up during or after the news especially news on politics and it is at this point that you hear people give their honest opinion of so and so. They open up to a point I always wish as Kenyans we would do it more often and publicly; there is so much honesty in their talk as they try to hold accountable most of these leaders especially those who have been serving in one public office or the other. I wish the political aspirants would listen to this. Sometimes however, this talk changes face and becomes a campaign time even within the house as different family members campaign for their candidate of choice. This is particularly so in my parents’ house thanks to my own father who tends to think that the political party he supports can never be at fault ( I pray he never reads this article, and if he does let it be next year on the condition that probably his choice leads).

It is in line with this that the other day when a friend of mine and I were watching seven O’clock news, and as usual political rallies across the country were being aired, her candidate of choice among the presidential aspirants happened to be aired. And of course she had to say something, “…is the person I will vote for…” ,funny enough this particular candidate happened to be one of my favorites whom I think at the end of the day will carry my vote, and yes I affirmed her choice by saying, “me too”. Her next sentence is what got me thinking, this is what she said, “Nemaaketing…” that is to say “you will be killed by…” in an ironical way. What she actually meant was that I would get myself killed literary in reference to my father if he found out my choice of candidate.

 This may keep you wondering what percentage of my life my father is part of and why I cannot make my own decisions without him feeling betrayed, but this is how majority of us humans behave. We seek to please the people we know are linked to us in one way or another. We support a political aspirant not because of the track record of his/her work, neither his/her portfolio nor even by following our own conscience because of how promising a leader to be is but because he/she is one of our own, or because we know that we will directly or indirectly benefit from him or her forgetting that he/she is suppose to serve all Kenyans and not just a particular individual.

We are the ones who lure our own leaders into retreating back to their tribal cocoons and if not so they move with a particular group of friends who “have been there for him or her”. At the end of the day, when one aspirant takes the lead, we become the first to point fingers of how tribal he/she is never posing to think of how the situation would be if our candidate was the one leading. Would things be different or will it be just the other way round?

I long for the day when Kenya would not elect a leader because of their attachment or popularity but because it is purely based on merit, a day when a leader would become a leader because he/she is the right person for the job and there will be no political affiliations but pure democracy. The choice remains with you and me. Kenyans are the determiners of which direction their politics will take whichever choice we make and we can rest assured that at the end of the day we will be where we have chosen to go. Choose today where you want Kenya to be tomorrow.   

Transcendent Springs of Tenderness

God’s tenderness towards the lowly is rooted in his transcendent self-sufficiency. This means that those who love to make much of God’s greatness (which we all should, Psalm 40:16; 70:4) ought to delight in tenderness to the lowly. God exalts his transcendent self-sufficiency by loving the orphan and widow and alien.
Here’s the text where I am finding these ideas (Deuteronomy 10:17-19):

The LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor take a bride. 18 He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. 19 So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

What I mean by God’s transcendent self-sufficiency is expressed in these words: "God is over all other gods.” He is “Lord over all other lords.” He is “great.” He is “mighty.” He is “awesome.” Then Moses says, on the basis of this greatness, God “does not show partiality” and he “does not take a bribe.” The point of this is to stress his transcendent self-sufficiency. God does not take a bribe because he has no motive to take a bribe: he already owns all the money in the universe and he has control over the briber. He is above bribes the way the sun is above candles, or the way beauty is above mirrors.
Moses also says God shows no partiality. That is, he doesn’t try to curry anyone’s favor through special treatment. Showing partiality is like reverse bribery. Except the bribe is not with money but with favored treatment. God is above that, because he has no need to do it. If he wants to get something done, he is not cornered into coercive strategies. He can just do it. Showing partiality is what you do when you can’t cope with the consequences of justice. But God is not only able to cope, he is the source of all coping. He depends on no one outside himself. He is transcendently self-sufficient.
Now here comes the most precious part. On the basis of God’s transcendent self-sufficiency, Moses says, “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.” Since God cannot be bribed by the rich, and has no deficiency to remedy through favoritism, therefore, he works for those who can’t afford bribes and have nothing to attract his partiality—the orphan, the widow, and the refugee. This is why I said above, God’s tenderness toward the lowly is rooted in his transcendent self-sufficiency.
Then comes the application in verse 19: “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” We have been the beneficiaries of the overflow of God’s transcendent fullness. And there is every reason to believe that we will continue to be, if we do not try to bribe him with our works, or show off to win his partiality. If we will recognize our widow-like, orphan-like, refugee-like condition of helplessness, and rely on free grace from a self-sufficient Savior, then we will be loved forever. And being loved like this, we will have power and pleasure in loving like we are loved.
This is what lies behind James 1:27: “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress….” May God make us a tender people to the glory of God’s transcendent self-sufficiency.

Tala Talk; When My Friends Speak

Over the weekend my friends and I were attending a graduation party for one of our own from the land of honey which happens to be Ukambani and more specifically, Tala. One thing I know about our brothers and sisters from Kamba land is their kindness on distance especially if you are new to the place. It does not matter how far you are from your destination, they’ll always tell you it’s close. They have a way to say it in Kamba bt I will not even attempt to say it lest I end up laughing at myself ( but I know you know what I am talking about, yes, that one). To them, there is nothing like long distance, wherever you are going is “here” despite their history as long distance traders.

And so for us who we were travelling from Nairobi to Tala, when I enquired how far Tala was and the definite response was “it is not far”, I kind of braced myself for a whole days’ journey.

True to their word, Tala town was not as far as I thought it would but our journey was not yet over and the interesting part is none of us knew the direction we were to take after the town including people whom I shall not mention, who ought to at least have a clue; and for all the others who have a clue of what I’m talking about, this also is a clue for you. This is now when it hit hard that we are in this land of long distance traders. By the way, I forgot to ask, do water melons grow in Kamba land-just asking-,anyway, that was beside the point. We had to ask for directions and sure enough we were directed and this is the point where I wonder whether our good friends are poor with directions or is it that the well educated learned friends of mine are challenged when it comes to maneuvering through a geographical location to find a place that some of them have actually been to without pointing fingers. To cut the long story short, we finally made it to our friends’ place after an unintended tour of the area.

The whole event was a success as we celebrated her hard work. It is always interesting to listen to our parents especially on such occasions and how dramatic they can get and how proud they are of their children. And who wouldn’t be proud of his/her son or daughter anyway? There is always a special child/parent bond.

And as they say, everything that has a beginning must have an end, this event had to end for us in Tala but the day had not ended. Our journey back to Nairobi is what set the ball rolling for me as I listened to this special group of friends. I must admit I was totally amazed at how compassionate these guys are towards leadership; their passion for leadership is what kept me engaged as I carefully listened to them. They might not actually have realized it and thought I didn’t have anything to say or was not simply interested because I was quiet the entire period but I was keenly listening to them. I remember at some point I thought that if I had one chance to do something for this country, I would vouch for that entire team to constitute the government of our country.

The topics of discussion these guys were having, I must say were worth being aired on a TV morning breakfast show and have all our politicians and top government officials listen to it. This is the point where you actually appreciate when they are called the crème de la crème of our nation, and true they are. They talked of the economy, the divisions of class that we have here in Kenya; the haves and the have-not, the extremes of either having or not having at all. One actually quoted a quote that is still ringing in my mind; he said “There will come a time when the poor will have nothing to eat apart from the rich”. Another one mentioned how estates and apartments that are situated near the ever green lavish areas where the rich men and women live end up being named. Their proximity to the area gives them a view of the lavish estate hence names like Rundaview estate, Karenview estate and so forth but truth is, it does not matter whether you can view it or not, you are still not in that circle. You remain to be at the periphery.

I know by now you are dying to know who they are, but that is beside the point or rather, that is where we go wrong as a country. When we recognize or want to be associated with people not because of the legacy of their ideas and work but because of their names. Names will come and go but the works of their minds and hands will last generations to come.

The question that remains now is, how are we ever going to close this gap? There is only one person who will be able to do this and that is you. As for my very special friends, I heard you speak so passionately about it and I am going to hold you accountable to your words and I pray that with the help of God you will be able to bring this change that you desire so much to our country.

Kudos to you guys, you know yourselves.

   

BORN TO DIE

What if I was born to die? As in, the only reason you were born is for you to die. Have you ever thought of such a question? Now I’m giving you that chance to think about it, what if you were actually born to die? The answer that would linger in many of our minds would probably be then why was I born in the first place and my answer would be, because you can’t die without being born; you first live before you die. But even with this answer, I don’t know if someone if any would have a reason to live a meaningful life. With our human intellectual, a good number of us would find that as the perfect reason not to engage in any meaningful life fulfilling activity and we would argue that our purpose here on earth is to die so why waste your time, energy and other resources doing things that will never benefit you. The mediocre mind might argue, “give that, e.g money, to the poor instead of wasting it educating yourself yet you will die” forgetting that at the end of the day, all humans are bound to physical death to say the least.

Probably by now you are wondering why on earth I am writing concerning death which is a topic least discussed in any conversation and if by any chance it crops up, it’s purely circumstantial. Here is why, first is because the question I raised at the start of this article is not fictional but a real life situation and a true story of someone born to die, secondly and which we all tend to deny is that it is a reality which we can never run away from. In this article, I will mainly tell of the first reason and hopefully we will tackle the second reason later.

Many a time, we wade through life without really knowing our purpose in life and so each day we keep wondering what our purpose is, we are not able to identify the reason as to why we exist and we even go to the extent of having others identify the purpose of our own lives. Some of the statements I have heard state, “I wish God would clearly tell me what I am suppose to do”, “ If only I can identify what I am truly good at”, “I wish I had known these early enough, my life would have been so different”, but what leads people to make such statements? I believe it is lack of satisfaction in what he or she is currently doing or has been doing which arises from a point of taking the wrong turn at some point in their life.

Then there are those who have enjoyed every day of their lives. They have found fulfillment and satisfaction in what they do, they have been feeding from the silver spoon because there was someone to help them identify what they were created for and what they are good in and they played their role by following it.

I bet by now the question is, who identifies our purpose and how do we get to know what our purpose is?...

…watch out for this continuation

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Measure of love

William Blake, a British poet, painter, engraver and a mystic had this to say of love;

'Love seeketh not itself to please,
'Nor for itself hath any care,
'But for another gives its ease,
'And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.'

The ability to love naturally without expecting back is a virtue that only few posses. My mother always taught me the importance of love, love not only towards my family but even to those whom I might think do not deserve it. The biblical aspect of loving your neighbor as you love yourself, neighbor here not referring to the person living nor sited next to you but rather every human being you come in contact with. (P.s: it is not a request but rather a command).

Sometimes I think if I were to attend a practical session class on loving your siblings, I would without any shadow of doubt top the class, but is that enough? To only love those whose blood flow in my veins, it is worth it, but enough…no. I have in a few occasions told my friends of how much I love my brothers that if at some point, and God forbid, their lives were at stake, then I would rather have mine on the line than theirs. These are the people with whom your life revolves around and sometimes it feels like life is not worth living without them. You can actually face the grave for them.

As unbelievable as it seems, this is actually what happened to me. He always said that he loved me but it was not mutual, that he wanted to be in a relationship with me but as far as I was concerned, you can only be in a relationship if both of you are reading from the same script, if you have mutual feelings but here is this guy whom I feel completely nothing for. Funny enough, he made the promises that many of his species make, that he would love me forever, that I will never regret if I decide to choose him over someone else and that he would give me a straight ticket to heaven, and this as he said, was not the’ heaven on earth’ but the real thing. Of course all these fell on very attentive ears but the heart seemed like one made of stone rather than blood. Emotionless! Someone might say, I think it was more of blindness plus stubbornness, but he did not give up. I dare even say I gave him enough gun shots but his spirit was never shattered. N.B, (FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NO CLUE, GUN SHOTS ARE THOSE WORDS YOU NEVER WANT TO HEAR WHEN ASKING SOMEONE OUT, e.g I have always considered you as my big brother/sister…he he, or just a plain NO), he kept coming back for more and when he finally realized that there was no breakthrough, he gave his life up for me. Many at times he’d said that I couldn’t live without him and at some point he even said he can die for me but of course to me that was crap. What do you mean I can’t live without you, who do you think you are? And so to him the only way to save me from myself was to die for me, it is unbelievable and the day I learnt of this, I can’t even describe what I felt. It was a moment of pain, it stung deep through my flesh to the bone marrow, and my heart was crushed into pieces, my soul groaned as I remembered how heartless I had been towards a man who had truly loved me. For a day I could not live with myself but it was too late to turn back time. He gave up his life that I might live, he died for me. By the way, this isn’t fiction but a true story. Now this is the weirdest part of this story, although this man died that I may live, I have come to learn that he does not force me to live my life the way he expects me to. He has given me the liberty to choose whether to live for him or not and I can proudly declare that I have deliberately chosen to live for Him because this is love. This man is my savior and I bet you know him, He is the Christ!

Slv 2012...coming soon

                                                                        Epitome of Legacies                           

While marveling of the times I had during a recent sunrise on a clear crisp morning, upon seeing the golden rays of sunlight on this day, I know the chapter of the book is about to close, the ring signature is about to be endorsed, the stamp is almost being sealed, the season is coming to an end, the 8-4-4 system is fast approaching to a halt.

One season is coming to an end, another is just about to begin for the beauty of the whole relationship that has blossomed, for the glory of the understanding we have for the friendships we have built which over and above us lies. A time that according to me, has been impacting, one that is worth every breath in me and the memories I have can never be erased and even if I tried, it will be like drawing a brushful of correction liquid over a line.

These are the kind of relationships that define us; they remind us of who we are and where we have come from. I am one of the people who strongly believe in walking down memory lane every day the sun rises, it reminds us to keep our focus and each time it sets, reminding us to be thankful of what we have.

It is my sincere prayer that each time you open this book, it will remind you of the times you had in campus, of the friends you made, of the people who were able to reach past the thorns to show you the rose within you because this is the characteristic of love. As for me, I have chosen not to grumble that roses have thorns but to be thankful that thorns have roses. And when the night approaches, I want you to remember that the moon is not just a rock, it is a little piece of magic that comes out every night even when times are hard to remind you that every day has a potential for beauty.

These are your legacies,

Your very own memories,

Treasure them always

And it will be my pleasure, if you will enjoy them.

 

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