It is that time of the year that this column celebrates those who have made 2021 more livable and to censure those that have been a strain on our common existence. My first bouquet goes to our medical fraternity.

In no other season has the dedication and sacrifice of our doctors, our nurses, and all our medical frontline workers been more evident.

In the early days, when no one knew the exact nature of Covid-19’s infectiousness and severity, it was left to our medical workers, many times without even the most basic protections, to lead the war against an unknown virus.

Many paid the ultimate price with their lives. Only God can reward them and their families.

My second bouquet goes to our farmers. Having grown up in a farming community, I am aware just how thankless and punishing rural farming can be.

Land sizes have diminished. Soil quality has been eroded by continual use of suspicious pesticides.

Prices of basic inputs are prohibitive. The farmer can only produce any food, in Genesis terms, “through painful toil”.

Unappreciated lot

Yet these overworked and unappreciated lot continue to sustain us. This was most evident during Covid’s darkest hours.

When there was lockdown in Nairobi and incomes disappeared overnight, many families were sustained by the rural folk who fed our families for months.

Amazingly, food prices did not skyrocket, meaning our farmers increased supply to meet higher demand.

No poetic ode has been written in your favour but we owe you our gratitude. May your tribe increase!

My final bouquet is to the Kenyan voter.

I have watched with interest as presidential candidates troop around the country selling Hustles or Azimios.

Absent a few incidents, the presidential candidates have their support across the country.

The days when former PM Raila Odinga could not be served in a Nyeri restaurant are gone. Deputy President William Ruto gets crowds in Kisumu’s Obunga slum.

Public invectives

May we sustain this to the election. We must never forget that politics is never that serious; once our competing candidates are done throwing public invectives at one another, they dine and wine together in exclusive clubs.

On the barb front, the first one goes to unthinking magistrates who continue to jail teenagers for engaging in sexual relations with their under 18 girlfriends.

The latest case was in Embu where an 18 old Form Four student was jailed for seven years for “defiling” his 16-year-old girlfriend.

The girl confirmed that the sex was consensual and that she had run away from home to spend time with the boy she loved.

Morals aside, no legitimate law can send such a boy to jail! Our magistracy must learn to deliver justice, not be slaves to black letter law.

My second barb goes to social media prefects, those charlatans who only reek negativity on social media platforms.

I have seen brutal shaming on social media without facts, without principle, just spewing hate for the sake of additional likes. Shame on you!

Finally, my barb goes to the Ministry of Health. When Covid landed on our shores, you were our champions, our port of call in tough times.

You have since mutated into tyrants who peddle unscientifically supported warnings.

The most recent is the “you cannot access malls or government services unless vaccinated”.

There is no science to support the push for mandatory vaccination.

Doctors have confirmed that the latest Covid variant is mild and disappears mostly without the need for hospitalisation or even medication.

Vaccinations

So why this rush to get us vaccinated by force, when, especially for Africa, vaccination has not been our protector?

Are we entitled to think this is procurement, not need, driven? I say again, we deserve better. To my readers, you’ve been great company.

I wish you a splendid barb-free Christmas.