Proudly Kenyan!

I love sports. This past weekend was a brilliant sporting weekend for Kenyan national teams in various categories. I take this opportunity to salute the sportsmen and sportswomen for flying our flag high.

In athletics, the Kenya team to the World Cross Country Championship battled muddy and icy conditions to register wins. I pay tribute to the entire tem and pay special tribute to Japeth Korir who bagged the elusive gold in the 12km senior men’s race. The 19-year old joins a prestigious club of John Ngugi, Paul Teregat, Joseph Ebuya and Kenenisa Bekele. Not a small feat. Hongera!

Japheth Korir – Winner 12km Men’s race

In rugby, the Kenya sevens team was at the Hong Kong Sevens. They emerged fourth in this leg and are placed fifth in the IRB world standings. While I pay tribute to the entire team I wish to pick out two players who stood out for me; Willy ‘Lomu’ Ambaka whose receiving of the ball from kickoffs and amazing runs are a sight to behold and Biko Adema who had an almost 100% conversion record. These are a bunch of armatures who juggle work, school and other commitments in addition to rugby but are mashing it up with the best in the world in their field. They embody the never-say-die-in-your-face Kenyan spirit.  For the joy and occasional heartache that their performance delivers consistently as they journey around the world, I say asante!

Biko Adema

In football, Harambee Stars traveled to Nigeria and secured a draw against the defending African champions. This was after they were accorded shoddy treatment by their hosts. It is worth noting that the Stars were leading from the 35^th minute and the Nigerians equalized in the 94^th minute with the match ending in the 95^th minute. Apart from the shock result, there is the fact that the boys played attractive football; they showed self-belief and the free-kick that delivered the goal was sublime. I pay tribute to the entire Harambee Stars team and pay special tribute to my man-of-the-match Francis Kahata who had the match of his life.  Great job Harambee Stars, keep it up!

Francis Kahata

These men and women are true Kenyan heroes. They give their blood, sweat and tears for the sake of our country and they deserve respect, recognition, and accolades! They also give us priceless joy, pride and bring us together like nothing else does. I salute them. I am proudly Kenyan!

GOD BLESS KENYA!

***All images are courtesy of Google***

I am at ease…

Chinua Achebe has gone to meet his Maker.

As is wont nowadays the news started as an online unconfirmed story before his family confirmed the worst. I got the confirmation via a BBC World Service news bulletin.

There is a point to my rambling. There was a time when BBC was the authority of news in Africa. During those days autocratic authorities practiced censorship. Now online social media is the first to break news. Time certainly do change. Also Achebe worked for radio in Nigeria and he also had a relationship with BBC.

So the dots do connect. You just have to know where and when to look.

Chinua Achebe

I have read all of Achebe’s books and his style of weaving the old and new is breathtaking. I have visited Nigeria from the comfort of my house. I have come to learn of Nigerian traditions and culture via Achebe’s books. As a history buff Achebe helped open a window into how life was before and after the coming of the whiteman. I have enjoyed countless hours immersed in an Achebe books. For all these I say thank you.  Also I have grown as a writer due to my reading and thus by extension I owe Chinua Achebe a thank you for the inspiration.

As an aside, over and above mourning his death I also mourn that I will now never have a chance to meet him. I have been blessed to meet Wole Soyinka and Chimamanda Adichie and early this year I spoke of how a brilliant hatrick it would be to meet Chinua Achebe. Sadly that now will never be.

If I had had a chance to meet him I would have asked him about his simplicity in his writing which is something every writer aspires to and which Achebe seemed to achieve effortlessly. I also would have love to chat him about his passion for Nigeria as I am passionate about Kenya and I seek to write to make Kenya better.

Chinua Achebe’s life was a life well lived. He was a storyteller extraordinaire and he will live forever in the memories of all of us who savoured his work and that is why although I mourn I am at ease.

Fare thee well.

‘There is that great proverb—that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter… Once I realized that, I had to be a writer.’

– Chinua Achebe

‘I was conscripted by the story, and I was writing it at all times – whenever there was any opening. It felt like a sentence, an imprisonment of creativity.’

– Chinua Achebe

‘It is only the story…that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it,we are blind. Does the blind man own his escort? No,neither do we the story; rather, it is the story that owns us.’

– Chinua Achebe

PS: Every African needs to read The Trouble with Nigeria by Chinua Achebe.

GOD BLESS KENYA!

***Image courtesy of Google***

Kenya First!

If you take anything from this post let it be: Kenya FIRST! Kenya is BIGGER!

I am quite astute on matters politics. The trends, the nuances, the undercurrents and more importantly the bigger picture. It was thus to be expected that this blog would be overflowing with the politics of the day in this election period. This has not been the case.

The reason is simple. I disengaged emotionally from political commentary and discussion over a month ago when I realized that logical thought has flown out the window. And that folk who should know better, folk who are young, urban, brainy had become so tribal and fanatical of the so-called front-runners. Candidates who honestly are nothing to write home about have suddenly became messiahs with their fanatical, very decided voters willing to lay down their lives for them.

It is scary. It is shocking. It is numbing. I have no mouth with which to express my emotion of this. A related phenomena is the rise and rise of social media. Unfortunately this rise has not had a correlation rise in intelligence and individual thinking. This however is a story for another day.

I may be disengaged from the political nonsense Kenyans have been subjected to but I am a registered voter. This brings me to the second point of this post.

My preferred candidate will most likely not win. I will still vote for said candidate. My conscience will not allow me to vote any other way.

Moving on, I have been praying a lot for Kenya. My prayers were two-pronged: Peace and Good leadership. However from how the race is shaping up, it appears that sadly good leadership will not visit Kenya in 2013.  It is said that a people get the leadership they deserve. As Kenyans we need to ask ourselves what we did wrong to deserve the leadership we are most likely to get.

So for now, I pray for peaceful elections. I also pray that we get a first round winner because this country cannot afford (money-wise and emotional-energy-wise) a run-off.

Despite the front-runners not being my cup of tea, I shall respect the wishes of the majority and accept whoever wins as the President of Kenya. That is democracy and also because Kenya is BIGGER.

Which leads me to my final pitch, Fellow Kenyans, as you go out to vote on Monday, no matter who you will be voting for, please put Kenya first because Kenya is BIGGER!

GOD BLESS KENYA!

PS: I am no longer an undecided voter :). Today I sat and figured out exactly who i am voting for in every position. Political party did not matter to me. I looked at a candidate’s past track record and ability to do the job based on the job description as prescribed in the constitution.