Free things could cost you more
Photo/FILE
A senior police officer attempts to chase away members of the public as
they scramble for unrefined edible oil after a tanker overturned in
Mombasa.
By CAROLINE NJUNG'E
Posted Saturday, March 3 2012 at 13:09
Posted Saturday, March 3 2012 at 13:09
Our love for free things will be our undoing. Hear me out.
A few years ago, I received a phone call from a
young woman who did my laundry on a weekly basis. She would not make it
that day, she informed me.
Sounding excited, she informed me that someone had
just told her that the local MP was visiting, and that he’d be dishing
out money and unga.
Now, you know how obsessed we Kenyans are with unga. We stop functioning each time there’s a shortage of maize.
We curse the government and call for the
resignation of the person we hold responsible and we hold demonstrations
waving placards with threatening messages – the idea of going without
our beloved ugali for even a few days unleashes our ferocious alter egos.
I should know. I am one of those people who can eat ugali
for seven continuous days, lunch and supper, and still close my eyes in
utter delight as each delicious lump slides down my throat.
By all means take away the rice, chapati, and what-have-you, but please don’t touch my ugali. No sir.
Where was I? Oh, yes, the philanthropic MP.
Something told me that nothing good would come out of that
meet-the-people tour, especially if it was true that goodies were being
dished out.
I was right. It turned out that, after camping for an entire
day at the local school, singing the MP’s praises under a scorching
sun, the only thing that she took home was half a packet of maize flour –
the other half spilt to the ground while she was wrestling it from
another misinformed woman.
She was lucky that she wasn’t among those injured
in the scramble for the few packets of flour that the “generous” MP had
brought along. Even worse, no money was dished out.
She wanted to find out whether she could pass by my
house the next day to do the laundry. Unfortunately, someone else had
got the job.
Had she quelled the temptation for the rumoured freebies, she’d have made enough money to buy at least four packets of unga and that day’s stew.
No, it’s not what you’re thinking. This young woman
wasn’t poor. She lived with her family nearby, and had just completed
college.
Being an industrious girl, she had figured out a way to make some pocket money while she job-hunted.
Most of the time, this baffling desire for reaping where we have not sown ends disastrously.
Sounds funny but educative.
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