If some of my colleagues have noticed that I have been shuffling around the newsroom looking sleepy and worn out, blame it on the long Easter weekend.
Holidays are hopeless. When they come to an end, you are so tired you need another holiday. In my case, it didn’t help that an old friend from Marsabit was in town and as result, he exposed me to a bit of peer group pressure — very negative pressure I must add.
I probably made things worse because I spent my nights — or what remained of them — reading through a historical text of the Congo. I love history. It sort of explains the things that don’t make sense and has a way of rudely reminding you why you are in trouble.
I know it is highly unlikely that President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta reads this magazine, which is a shame because it is far more exciting than those boring intelligence briefs that Maj General Michael Gichangi has been feeding him of late.
But I hope he will find time to examine a few words of wisdom in this editorial. These words are not mine but come from the mouth of his father, Burning Spear — Jomo Kenyatta himself.
Son, this is what the old man said in 1952: “Our country, today, is in a bad state, for it’s a land full of fools — and fools in a country delay the independence of its people.”
Now, UK, fools aren’t necessarily bad people. But we would appreciate if you kept them out your Cabinet, kitchen or otherwise.
Secondly, old Jomo also gave this gem of wisdom: “If one man steals, or two men steal, there are people sitting close by lapping up information, who say the whole tribe is bad because a theft has been committed.” (Jomo called us fools, didn’t he?)
Regarding justice, Jomo said, “The policeman must arrest an offender, a man who is purely an offender, but must not go about picking up people with a small horn of liquor in their hands and march them in procession with his fellow policemen to Government saying ‘he is Mau Mau’.” (Gosh, they used to do that in 1952 too?)
And finally, the sweetest: “We want self-government, but this we will never get if we drink beer. It is harming our country and making people fools and encouraging crime. It is also taking all our money.
“More important, the beer we are drinking is harmful to our birthrate. You sleep with a woman for nothing (sic) if you drink beer. It causes your bones to weaken and if you want to increase the population, you must stop drinking.”
Old Jomo spoke those words in 1952, but is chilling how true they remain today, ditto the hunger, illiteracy and disease of the time.
