Now they are politicising the poor jigger

It was clearly the picture of the week – Jimmy Kibaki, he of Simama Kenya, moving stoically forward to wash dirty, jigger infested feet somewhere in central Kenya.

It was a brave thing. Unwashed jigger-infested feet are not gentle to the eye — or to the nose — and it takes a very brave soul to touch them, leave alone wash them, gloved hands notwithstanding. It’s especially remarkable when the said person lacks any intimate knowledge of jiggers, having probably only met the nasty parasites in a little science textbook in primary school.

Jimmy may not know it but I suspect his mummy was really proud of him that day. It’s however unlikely that his daddy, Mwai, would be caught washing some peasant’s foot. Not when it has jiggers. It’s even possible that when he saw Jimmy grit his teeth and grasp a dusty, jigger infested foot, he jerked up violently and said something akin to kumbafu.

simama kenya

Now if this is the face of Simama Kenya, then Eugene Wamalwa has acquired a good thing. Eugene himself looks like he’s seen a jigger, probably lived with one, unlike his equally eloquent but classier brother, Michael. But that’s neither here nor there.

Point is this is the servant leadership that Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka used to talk about during the heady ‘wiper’ days before Dr Julia Ojiambo lost the heel of her shoe. He must be raving mad at Jimmy for stealing the (servant leadership) thunder from him before he, the original wiper, got round to wiping anyone’s feet.

Political stunt

Unfortunately, it’s not unthinkable that someone, say Jimmy’s political detractors, will wake up and say, ‘Ooh! Look, Jimmy is now politicising jiggers!’ This would be most unkind to the Ahadi Trust, the proper jigger men and women who have been insisting all along that jigger digging for them is a calling, not a political stunt.

It’s however easy to forgive sceptics who might read politics in Jimmy’s new anti-jigger crusade. After all, politicians have conjured up all sorts of antics, all in the name of gaining peasant votes.

For instance, there were those like PLO Lumumba whose pampered palms once grasped a slasher to rid the community of dense vegetation where crooks and mosquitoes breed.

Then we had the likes of Ferdinand Waititu who engaged in community policing, stoning this or that villain, ironically, for political stature. Before him came Pastor Pius Muiru who waded knee deep in murky waters in shiny shoes and elaborate suit in the name of walking the (empty) talk.

And who can forget Charity Ngilu hightailing it from an exploding teargas canister with her skirt hitched high for a protest that no one remembers or storming a police station to release a ‘suspect’?

Remedy for jiggers

Anyway, back to jiggers. Jimmy, tell the people of central Kenya that the remedy for jiggers lies with Eugene Wamalwa. In western Kenya, where Eugene comes from, they smear floors with cow dung and smother the little bastards to death. Simple as that.

Linking central and western Kenya via an anti-jigger campaign would not be playing politics. It’s merely what Mwakwere calls kukamata adui. Zipapa!