THIS SILLY WORD "KENYA"

So I got myself quite an earful from readers of Twenty Twenty asking me why the devil I was saying nothing about the death of Osama Bin Laden. Well after all the madness and the excitement has died down , I can now reveal, that it was simply because he deserved no space on this blog. He is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred Kenyans, and I feel no inclination whatsoever to talk about him even in death. If it were up to me, he would be erased from memory!

So how about we talk about something a little more worthy of our time. I have noticed that in every national address, the president and the prime minister will always utter the words "Our Country Kenya" Now, even though they use this phrase willy-nilly, I highly doubt these agents of power have the slightest clue what this word "Kenya" means.

So what does this word "Kenya" (Having to type the quotation marks is driving me crazy)mean?

Well, to the so called middle class of the city, it entails a night out with the boys or girls, it entails fueling ones car, servicing the same, attending a football match perhaps, and of course there is the ever present headache of school fees.

For the more fortunately opulent, the word "Kenya" means a day at the spa, or at the club, the nerve wracking wait for your latest model of the car you saw on Top Gear last week. But the life of the rich is not easy, on the contrary! There is the annoying inconvenience of being served with the wrong fork at an expensive restaurant. The experience is unbearable!

Then there is the lot with which the inconsequential Kenyan must contend. Going home at the end of the day, without a job after a day of tarmacking on an empty stomach. Oh yes, and when I said going home, you may have been under the illusion that i am talking about four stone walls...on the contrary, i am talking a bout a shanty in the slum that would not afford any level of privacy. Why even you last meal is not a secret as the fesses from your makeshift toilet are there for all to see.

Then there is the hopelessness, that makes you seriously consider death as a thing of bliss, and the constant wrangling in the political arena, that you would very willingly listen to on your battery powered radio, but you are too busy mopping the brow of your sick mother, because even though you took her to the government hospital yesterday and waited in line for five hours, and witnessed three other patients wait to their death, your sigh of relief was wasted when they called her name for treatment, after which you were told the pharmacy was empty.

And the next time a Kenyan crosses the line first at an international athletics meet, our chests will swell with pride, because it really does not matter which Kenya you come from does it? As long as it is a Kenya of sorts.

So no! I will not talk about Osama Bin Laden. I would much rather talk about this silly word "Kenya" whatever it may mean to you.