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“He was a talented footballer,but he was not blessed to achieve much..''Such phrases are not new to our ears and not soon will anything change to the better,if nothing is done. Sometimes I'm moved to tears when I watch talents washed away to the bins at the expense of exploitation and proper usage. In most cases, the talent bearer is neither disturbed nor perturbed as a result. Worse still, many people do not even bother to discover their areas of passion. Our society is defunct and we are so engaged on less engaging activities and hence rendering our talents irrelevant. We are so engaged in pointing accusing fingures at the government's failure to create jobs and forget that,''nchi ni wewe. Recently,when I was asked to lead a group which would spearhead the mentor ship program of hapless children in Homa-Bay,I was moved to tears and this did not go well with my memory.
Background.
I would not understand how my background came to be part of my thoughts at this particular time. It reminded me of the days in Lo-rateng and Majiwa Primary schools when shoes for my legs were so rare and acquiring 'akala' was such an achievement. It reminded me of how I trained my metabolism to treat lunch as a luxury not because I loved fasting but because my hands were tied. This,however,did not mean supper was a guarantee. It again reminded me of how a tycoon siphoned my brain and hoodwinked me into pursuing a ghost scholarship process only to use my success to award his son the scholarship. Again,it reminded me of how my loving and caring mum would me Ksh.400 to travel to St. Joseph's School, Rapogi, a distance of Ksh. 250, (by then). Needless to say, the balance was my termly pocket money. On top of all that, it reminds me of how I won the admiration of many by my ever smiling face and trouble-resistant happiness; and that explains where I'm today. At Kenya's prestigious Kenyatta University leading a group of self driven individuals with a sole purpose of giving back to the society,Wanyale Mentorship Family. Ten years below the graph,if you would tell me of such a story,I would accuse you of mockery and sarcasm but today its a reality.
Self-Made.
As a young scholar,I have seen how poverty has nipped in the dreams of very many talented youths .Of more concern is not poverty; its immorality. I have again seen what recklessness,peer waves and mental locality has done to most of our young brains. At my age,20, I feel I should have done more to my people than what I have accomplished. My family, a representation of many Kenyan families, prides itself of poverty in every sense of the word. The lifestyle lead speaks volumes of our sorry lives. That's not the problem though. The problem is how we handle the situation. We do nothing to move from such conditions. When we rise against odds and make it to a university like Kenyatta,we don't do anything different. We do the same things that the former graduates plumed themselves of. We drink from the same bottles they died and we make our 'solid academic credentials' by outsourcing others to do assignments on our behalf so that at the end of it, we proudly refer to ourselves as 'half-baked' and straighten our stingy fingers to the government for having not created jobs. We blame the economy for having failed to sustain the current wage bill and hence failing us after slogging through the tiresome high school routine and successfully wading through the mechanical university curriculum.
Tom Mboya.
I know I'm not successful yet in life-but that depends on your definition of success. Again, I'm certain I do not want to be the same. I refuse to recycle ideas. One will evidently accuse me for chest-thumping; I forgive you for that. My thoughts are wired and geared towards helping humanity. Today, if I can lead a group of intellectuals with the same views, not a group of ten drunkards then I will attest to Deputy President's quote that, anything is possible in Kenya, the only limit is your resolute. I will barely require anyone's approval to do my part to the girls In Elgeyo Marakwet who still believe schooling is for men and early marriage is the only way out. I believe I was meant to continue Tom Mboya's 'airlifting' program. This time, its nothing sort of 'mental airlift'.
We have always blamed our current economic hardships and predicaments on colonialism but I see no other alternative had the narrative been otherwise. With or without colonialism, we would not be better of if droves of young minds spend 23 hours in entertainment joints-'having fun' and spend the remaining hour recapping how fun it was. The situation will not be any better when we still believe in paper intelligence with no proper reasoning time. The situation will not be any better when we still remain stuck at the inception stage of our talents for reason of fear of failure. The situation will not be any better when we still insist on sending voluminous CV's to other people's created jobs without giving a thought to a single idea of our own.
Sometimes you surely find the discussion on unemployment laughable when talked about. We are unemployed yet we wake up at 11am to 'check on a friend'. We are unemployed yet at college, we would rather attend a bash than attend a business conference. We are unemployed yet in our home county, there is cute shortage of agricultural products which we can produce with ease but we choose to stay 'around’, because we are graduates. Maybe its because we don't have a piece of land. So where did your land go to??That said, so what do we do in that case? We wait for employment with bated breath to drop from anywhere; whether heaven or hell without making any single attempt to tap it.
No one meant to be rude, but we must give a voice of reason a chance; at least for once. As for me, I thank God for the talent he blessed me with; writing. But that is mockery if I do not purpose to use it to convince that young drug addict in Mtwapa that drugs are not staple food or convince that brother of mine in Homa-Bay that bodaboda is not sustainable in the long run. After doing my part to humanity, I will offer myself peacefully to the other world without necessarily involving life supporting machines. But until then, call me Tom Mboya, because I believe in 'mental airlift', something which will keep us going for centuries to come. #We are the change we wish to see in the world…
Background.
I would not understand how my background came to be part of my thoughts at this particular time. It reminded me of the days in Lo-rateng and Majiwa Primary schools when shoes for my legs were so rare and acquiring 'akala' was such an achievement. It reminded me of how I trained my metabolism to treat lunch as a luxury not because I loved fasting but because my hands were tied. This,however,did not mean supper was a guarantee. It again reminded me of how a tycoon siphoned my brain and hoodwinked me into pursuing a ghost scholarship process only to use my success to award his son the scholarship. Again,it reminded me of how my loving and caring mum would me Ksh.400 to travel to St. Joseph's School, Rapogi, a distance of Ksh. 250, (by then). Needless to say, the balance was my termly pocket money. On top of all that, it reminds me of how I won the admiration of many by my ever smiling face and trouble-resistant happiness; and that explains where I'm today. At Kenya's prestigious Kenyatta University leading a group of self driven individuals with a sole purpose of giving back to the society,Wanyale Mentorship Family. Ten years below the graph,if you would tell me of such a story,I would accuse you of mockery and sarcasm but today its a reality.
Self-Made.
As a young scholar,I have seen how poverty has nipped in the dreams of very many talented youths .Of more concern is not poverty; its immorality. I have again seen what recklessness,peer waves and mental locality has done to most of our young brains. At my age,20, I feel I should have done more to my people than what I have accomplished. My family, a representation of many Kenyan families, prides itself of poverty in every sense of the word. The lifestyle lead speaks volumes of our sorry lives. That's not the problem though. The problem is how we handle the situation. We do nothing to move from such conditions. When we rise against odds and make it to a university like Kenyatta,we don't do anything different. We do the same things that the former graduates plumed themselves of. We drink from the same bottles they died and we make our 'solid academic credentials' by outsourcing others to do assignments on our behalf so that at the end of it, we proudly refer to ourselves as 'half-baked' and straighten our stingy fingers to the government for having not created jobs. We blame the economy for having failed to sustain the current wage bill and hence failing us after slogging through the tiresome high school routine and successfully wading through the mechanical university curriculum.
Tom Mboya.
I know I'm not successful yet in life-but that depends on your definition of success. Again, I'm certain I do not want to be the same. I refuse to recycle ideas. One will evidently accuse me for chest-thumping; I forgive you for that. My thoughts are wired and geared towards helping humanity. Today, if I can lead a group of intellectuals with the same views, not a group of ten drunkards then I will attest to Deputy President's quote that, anything is possible in Kenya, the only limit is your resolute. I will barely require anyone's approval to do my part to the girls In Elgeyo Marakwet who still believe schooling is for men and early marriage is the only way out. I believe I was meant to continue Tom Mboya's 'airlifting' program. This time, its nothing sort of 'mental airlift'.
We have always blamed our current economic hardships and predicaments on colonialism but I see no other alternative had the narrative been otherwise. With or without colonialism, we would not be better of if droves of young minds spend 23 hours in entertainment joints-'having fun' and spend the remaining hour recapping how fun it was. The situation will not be any better when we still believe in paper intelligence with no proper reasoning time. The situation will not be any better when we still remain stuck at the inception stage of our talents for reason of fear of failure. The situation will not be any better when we still insist on sending voluminous CV's to other people's created jobs without giving a thought to a single idea of our own.
Sometimes you surely find the discussion on unemployment laughable when talked about. We are unemployed yet we wake up at 11am to 'check on a friend'. We are unemployed yet at college, we would rather attend a bash than attend a business conference. We are unemployed yet in our home county, there is cute shortage of agricultural products which we can produce with ease but we choose to stay 'around’, because we are graduates. Maybe its because we don't have a piece of land. So where did your land go to??That said, so what do we do in that case? We wait for employment with bated breath to drop from anywhere; whether heaven or hell without making any single attempt to tap it.
No one meant to be rude, but we must give a voice of reason a chance; at least for once. As for me, I thank God for the talent he blessed me with; writing. But that is mockery if I do not purpose to use it to convince that young drug addict in Mtwapa that drugs are not staple food or convince that brother of mine in Homa-Bay that bodaboda is not sustainable in the long run. After doing my part to humanity, I will offer myself peacefully to the other world without necessarily involving life supporting machines. But until then, call me Tom Mboya, because I believe in 'mental airlift', something which will keep us going for centuries to come. #We are the change we wish to see in the world…
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