Last week, I was shocked by a headline in one of the local dailies about how readers were enquiring how they could join the secretive Illuminati society.
What is shocking is that most of the people are willing to do anything to get rich, including sacrificing their loved ones. In our days, we even feared to mention the word Illuminati which we associated with the Omen and 666.
This is the first time in my life I can say a big percentage of the society has become desperate, especially the youth. People no longer have the patience to climb the ropes to make it in life.
The saying, ‘easy come, easy go’, is not familiar to them. The ease of access to social media has worsened the situation. Look at the ease with which the boy child decides to be an armed robber for that extra cash, which he shows off on social media, besides having fun partaking alcohol and drugs.
Most don’t invest in their future and are killed in a matter of weeks. Funny thing is that their friends are encouraged by their deaths, calling it sacrifice and only serves to harden them.
The girl child easily decides to throw away morals and go for so-called ‘sponsors’ without caring how the sponsors make their money. She will take nude pictures of herself and post them in exchange for money and is always ready to ‘offer more’ at the right price. Do these girls even no that their bodies are the temple of God and need to be respected?
There are stories of both the boy and girl child going to the cemetery where they do ungodly acts of dancing naked on graves to get riches. Some even give up their souls so that they can be famous, forgetting that no one can be famous forever.
Prof Halimu Shauri, a sociologist, says Kenya is at a “metaphysical phase, which is the second stage of societal development, and in which people believe they can only be rich through forces of witchcraft and magic.”
The first stage is “theological, in which success is attributed to the power of God.” This is where most of us ‘Bamba Forties’ are categorised, as we still believe in the power of the Almighty to change our fortunes.
Most Bamba Forties are old-school and are in the third stage, which is “scientific.”
Here, every result is because of an action and most believe if you don’t work hard or smart, you will end up poor or if you don’t eat the right food and exercise, you will die of lifestyle diseases. So most of us thank God the first thing in the morning when we wake up and the last thing when we retire to bed.
The only problem is we tend to even blame God for the misfortunes and say it’s according to His will. But the fear of God during our upbringing has made us jump the second stage and in fact, most will tell you they don’t believe in dark powers.
It is funny how we have many churches, but we are less religious unlike in the past. Sunday, Saturday or Friday used to be God’s day, when the whole family worshipped. Let us not become so Westernized and forget about our belief in God.
Let us thank the Almighty for what we have and work hard for the future. I say again, we must bring up our kids with the belief that it’s only the fear and will of God that makes us survive.
They should learn that God would help only those who help themselves.
ojiamboainea@yahoo.com
@AineaOjiambo
