Life

We all come face to face with challenges. At least that is a mark of how human we are. Hard times come wrapped in all manners. It could be that you cannot afford the college fees that will enable you graduate and compete with others in the job market. It could be that the person you love most does not love you back in equal measure and always finds time to cheat on you or just lie to you. It could be that the promotion you have been yearning for years cannot come to fruition just because you are a person of integrity and principled and would rather remain stuck in the same job grade than fulfill the sexual desires of your boss who wants to use your body as a conduit to your promotion. Moreover, It could be that you are struggling to make ends meet and at that on some nights you cannot afford to tuck your children to sleep either because you are trying to finish on some school work or that the children want to keep you awake because they are the ones now pitying the condition you are ...

A word will stay around as long as there is work to do it, said Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. In Kenya, just as in so many African states, ‘tribe’ is still on active duty. As a Kenyan bluntly what tribe he is and he may, briefly ruffle up and take offence. But the outrage dissolves immediately upon contact with daily life. ‘Typical Mukamba, useless with money’, a friend mutters when a newspaper vendor fumbles his change. Another, arriving late at a café, explains: ‘I had to straighten up the car because the askari was giving me a hard time. Best not to mess with these Maasai’. And when another is fined for parking illegally he explains: ‘I begged with the policeman, but he would not let me off. He was a Kalenjin’ Any Kenyan can reel off the tags and stereotypes, which capture the categorization of the country’s society. Hard-nosed and thrusting, the Kikuyu are easily identified by their habit of mixing up their ‘r’s and their ‘l’s, the cause of much hilarity amongst their co...

AN OPEN LETTER TO ESTHER ARUNGA. While facing the harsh realities of life i have come across you story or your predicament. In fact i do not know how to describe your situation. But at least i know you muster what i am trying to put across. And its sad that part of your intentions are aimed at suing your parents. Rarely do i pause to write about matters that involve individual conscience but will do so for the matter at hand requires all people of good will to air their ideas. As i write, i am not a perfect person. I have my own shortcomings. Perhaps if put on a measure my own misdeeds, they would weigh more than what people perceive about you. But nowhere would one read that i have sued a parent or even a relative. I know you are a member of the finger of God for some reason. Or at least i think. Just as the prophets of the 8th century B.C left their villages and carried their 'Thus saith the lord' beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as apostle Paul left hi...