This is a January that has not lacked drama here in Kenya. So much has happened in the three weeks since we began this decade. Firstly we crossed the new year and the powers that be as is custom promised us Kenyans many many things. Then the action began with matatus going on a three day strike that paralysed Nairobi's crude transport system. Truth of the matter is we were happy that the bad habits exhibited by matatus were nowhere to bee seen so it was blisssfully a well mannered and cultured society. That myth was strenuously shattered when as a counter measure the ' Walking Nation' ignored the matatus and everybody who had a vehicle, car and/or four wheel contraption suddenly brought them out as a countermeasure to the strike. Though the Christmas season had finished the petrol money had not??? And there began our crisis. We couldn't move at all. Nairobi had the mother of all traffic jams and it dawned on us that 90% of all cars in Kenya are actually in Nairobi. We spent hours on the road getting to our varius domiciles/residences only to start the journey back to work. There are too few roads in Nairobi and plenty cars. Even the police were shocked and had no clue how to control the traffic as it was just a gridlock of monstrous proportions. Thieves couldnt steal cars as they couldnt make clean getaways with them either. Thank heavens the matatu strike ended or they were too broke to continue and sanity and bad manners returned to our roads. We are really caught between a rock and a hard place here.
With one fiasco over we were reminded that the education sector in this country is one big circus as free primary education made some millionaires and suddenly once again we shockingly realised and learnt thaat not all who finish primary school will go to Form one. So where do the 400,000 Std 8 dropouts go? Do they simply vanish or do they start being socially and economically self-empowered? This is a huge number of idlers we are creating every year. Meanwhile primary school headteachers are being transfered and secondary head of schools are hawking Form 1 places. This is sad indeed as we are playing with the future of many a young Kenyan here. The Ministry of Planning decided not to release the 2009 Census results after they shockingly gathered that the population of North Eastern had increased by 140%. Surely those guys then never did a census count in Eastleigh and realised that the population of a certain neighbouring contry is decreasing by 140%.
Thankfully the African Cup of Nations began in the second week of January and kept the broke long suffering Kenyan of January busy. One thing former Harambeee Stars Coach Antoine Hey did us a favour is that he made sure we did not qualify otherwise we would have been seriously embarrased in Angola. We are still playing futta as those guys giants and minnows are playing 'serious soccer. Quickly we forgot about Arsenal, Chelsea, Man CityUnited, Liverpol and Spurs and dual citizenship took root as we became Ivorians, Nigerians, Ghanians, Cameroonians, Togoloese (briefly), Angolans, Zambians, Malawians and Beninese. Somehow no-one wanted to become Egyptian, Tuinisian or Algerian. I suspect it was more out of fear than anything else especially when Egypt are clinically ruthless in dispatching their opponents. Meanwhile Harambee Stars went to Yemen to play a friendly and came back with 3 goals as a free duty free gift though they managed to score one in a meaningless aimless friendly. The Africa Cup of Nations will last till people get their Januaary wages/payslips/salaries at the end of the month.
The Kenyan politician meanwhile is taking advantage of all those sideshows and preparing a new constitution and planning for a referendum while Kenyans are thoroughly broke and not interested as they have other serious worries on their minds. Lesson learnt here is when you want to achieve something without people noticing do it in January and you'll succeed. News in today is that both ODM and PNU have agreed on a purely Presidential system. Well done to them but only problem is that even if they agreed on a monarchy and declared Kenya a kingdom that will have a King and Queen plus a Royal Family, no-one would really have noticed till after April when they will have financially recovered and preparing for the 20110 World Cup. This would mean it would still go unnoticed until July when sanity will have returned.
On a more serious note our hearts bleed for the pleople of Haiti and we pray that the tragedy that befell them may be handled with the urgency and support that it deserves fromthe global focal point. The people of Haiti are in our prayers and so are the people of Kenya.
I will from time to time post articles that I have written years back just as way of ensuring they are shared by a wider audience and are not lost. Hope you will appreciate.
Cheers and stay well.
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