Happy New Year readers. So one morning, I sat down under my apple tree sipping on a glass of mango juice and wondering why my Kamba Domestic manager sent me the text that she is harvesting mangoes and has enough money to take care of herself hence she doesn’t need the job anymore! Suddenly my efforts to give her a raise last year for her good work is a non-issue! Anyway, it’s life, we move on.  This was a few hours before Shimelemende (my daughter) walks to me crying, she is probably bored of watching the same cartoon “Baby Shacks!” since waking up. Her mum is busy with kitchen work and hence cannot attend to her. She definitely needs attention and this working from home thing isn’t working for me, so I immediately call my boss and ask her for a day off, it’s a Flexi weekend so she agrees to it.  We bond, listen to rhumba music and danced to some of papa ngwasuma’s songs. The weekend is doing us well, we can’t complain.

My attention is then redirected back to a media post that says “Donald Trump (pictured) becomes the first U.S. president to be impeached twice after the House of Representatives charges him with incitement of insurrection”. I then stop and think about the state of African countries, “incitement”! The United States has been our Big brother, the rot that was in government was painting a bad picture, we always have looked up to them on matters of democracy and politics but then this time, I think they have failed us. Actually, they are giving a picture of the realities of political battles in Africa. How the bad choices we make sometimes will be hard to clean off our shoulders, Nairobian’s would know better.  I draw my mind to how Kenya in particular has been walking a thin line between political insurrections. We as the middle class have for a long time fueled the cruelty of our leaders, we talk of real change on social media sites and how politicians are using the low-class citizen to drive their agenda but do nothing about it. Apparently spending 4-5 hours on the polling station is an issue, we are better of following through the media sites than making a vote. I then dive deeper to peruse through some replies, ooh so much hate in the post, I wonder why a Kenyan youth who has Mudavadi as his profile picture will say “Voting is always a scam! That’s why I will never vote.” Quite sad indeed.

So I think, we have lived this life year in and out with not much control of how the aftermath of an election will be!  We allow our brothers to be used politically and applaud them if they get a shirt or wheelbarrow from the political class in the name of supporting their hustles. The political class is busy selling hope, hope that hard work pays while their own children are mixing luck and connections to get a life we are owed by the fruits of labor. Now in 2021 with the election year fast approaching we see them visit our shrines, churches, graveyards in pure white clothing with ideas of betterment! We awe in awesomeness and dance to the political drums on promises that are flimsy. I can’t imagine we fall for a tax holiday yet most of us leave below the income tax bracket, we have no jobs in the first place. That in the middle of a pandemic, the government decided to add tax, maintain partial curfew hours, and still wants to fund a BBI process. Ooh.. our political choices at the ballot. I sometimes cry when I see us the youth, like errant Idakho bulls rampage with rage across other non-like-minded individuals on their social media pages in the name of supporting our hustling father, whose hustles we know little of.

The Youth in my view are the people we need to guide a lot before this coming election. I do remember some of my friends at the dawn of our youthful period made bad decisions for political gains and are now regretting why they did that. We have a section of the country that has been fed lies for far too long and hence their perception of life is different from the normal “hard-work pays” narrative our folks taught us. I do remember early December some of my age-mate whom we schooled together visited my cottage (“Isimba, which is under construction) and were amazed at the efforts I have relentlessly put in for the last 2 years now to make a shelter. They exclaimed “Msee Umeomoka Boss, wewe ndio Bazu, eeh hii sasa ndio dynasty” I got scared, I can barely afford a medical cover for my family and these ones are already equating me to some political class? This is so wrong! I feel part of being our brother’s keeper is to hold talks and guide our youths as we prepare for the next election. Most of them have had a rough locked down 2020 year could be hurt in many ways. The news we keep hearing of the crazy things our high school students are doing means that someone has to stand in the gap that is currently in place. We need to guide our little brothers especially those at the dawn of adulthood. If politicians make them feel comfortable then the country will be in ruins after the next election. So I finish my weekend dues at home and that late afternoon walk into my home church, there is a group of youth cleaning the church so I gather them for a chat, I am so fired up to begin this change movement in my community. I listen to their ideas and before we know it I have a group of 5 people committing to share our little chat with their friends. We are still looking for a brand for our weekend forums but my biggest takeaway in these sessions is that information is power, just be sure which one is fed to your son or daughter! Take time and look around you, how many can you impact, how many can you guide, did you know that a simple “Hi, can we talk” will open doors to many of them.