CANCER IN KENYA: IS IT A NATURALLY OCCURRING EPIDERMIC OR A MAN-MADE CATASTROPHE?

Apparently the cost of disobedience at the Garden of Eden was steeper that anything Adam and Eve could ever have envisaged. Initially man was created to be immortal and infallible just like the angels of the heavens but only better. He was created in God’s own image and was ostensibly meant to possess most of his limitless longevity, intelligence and basically drank straight from the fountain of youth. But the turning point was the provision for the freedom of choice. The caveat here was that any choices would ultimately precipitate consequences. The misfortune in all this is that humanity was created naïve to the wiles of the universe and ultimately fell prey to them. Retribution was heavy! This loosely translates to his stripping of divine health, free habitation in a sumptuous nirvana, know-how and worse of all that propensity to exist in perpetuity. While at the beginning everything was provided for by the supreme deity in the backdrop of our primordial parent’s transgressions life became a matter of struggle just as in the bestial realm, the survival of the fittest. So much for the much touted freedom of conscience.

Many years ago the city lifestyle had not caught up with us. Food generated as a product of our arable activities was plentiful and sufficient to feed us all. The landscape was verdant and bucolic in appreciation of the splendor bestowed upon our land. Fruits and vegetables were in copious supply and the welfare of everyone was a communal affair. As populations were still small and urbanization had not spread far and wide, we still had the grace to enjoy the fresh air and pristinely sprung water straight from nature’s fountains untainted. Playgrounds were vast expanses of land where a young mind was accorded the freedom to run around, play and weave their imagination as far as the eye could perceive. Our ancient way of life was convivial and wholesome leading to strong and healthy individuals ready to take the bull called life by the horns when they came of age.

Then came the missionaries and European settlers who gave way to colonialism. This brought upon our indigenous communities the white man’s outlook of industrialization that got everyone in a damn hurry. Rural to urban migration became the modern reality. The Whiteman’s education destroyed the harmony of society as it promised corpulent rewards and blinding lights only to those willing to abandon the rural setting for the hustle and bustle of city life. But still our colonial masters maintained a semblance of organization and civility on how they went about planning of urban areas mainly with regards to reticulation, zoning regulations, utility supply and most importantly sewage disposal. The rustic and self-sufficient way of provincial life now gave way to the fast-paced and seemingly glistening yet subservient albeit tick-like dependent way of life in the city. After independence from our Caucasian overlords, was left upon us residual a legacy of capitalism and basically everyone for himself - God for us all! All open space was taken up by real estate. Haphazard cropping-up of infrastructure became the norm as city planning and zoning committees existed only on paper. Worse still, civil service was now seen as a way to personal aggrandizement and no oversight was performed by government aficionados in antipathy to the strictures of any portion of their mandate. Moreover, all that had been afforded to us by nature in years gone by has virtually been destroyed and is now lost to future generations.

Modernization is not all bad as it has solved a few of yesterday’s conundrums and led to the invention of cures to the maladies that afflicted society previously. In the 80’s and 90’s the HIV menace ravaged humanity in a way few cataclysms have. Men and women who were hitherto energetic, virile and luscious as a consequence of their youth soon started to waste away and suffer an incessant and gradual pilfering of their salubrious comportments. As no medication offered a lasting remedy to this situation, many people in the developing world thought of this as a curse wrought upon humanity as a result of grievously angering the guy upstairs. Those not so perceptive started accusing their next-door neighbours and friends-turned-foes of witchcraft, if not giving them the ‘evil-eye’. Governments sat up and took notice after seeing so much of its youthful and productive populations succumb to the vagaries of this syndrome. Concerted efforts in modern medicine have birthed forth the ‘anti-retroviral therapy’ that has ensured that HIV-AIDS is no longer a death sentence but merely a medical condition to be managed like many humanity have had to grapple with for eons anyway. The scourges of the past like malaria, bubonic plague, smallpox, dysentery and polio among others have all been sufficiently contained to the glee of humanity. However, a new threat has arisen that has sent many medical practitioners scampering back to the literal drawing board, Cancer. The grouse with cancer is that its exact causative agents and vectors are neither well understood nor documented. It could as well originate from a myriad of sources. It not only baffles but with each passing day continues to defy all preventive and remedial measures thrown in its path. Apart from conclusive proof that overexposure to high-energy electromagnetic radiation is one of the causes of cancer from the tragic epilogue to the lives of Nobel-prize winning scientific forbearer; Marie Curie, her daughter Irene and son in law Joliot not so much can be conclusively explained with relation to the true origins of what is now with great trepidation referred to as the Big C. Cancer has afflicted both man and beast for eon; however, it is only today that this infestation has taken on epidemic proportions as to threaten the entire human existence.

To understand what Cancer really is you have to delve into a topic that I am ill-equipped to comment on but in all due gratitude to the input of friends and relatives in the medical profession and since circa 1998; Dr. Google, I will attempt to do justice to the topic of Human Anatomy. Anyone who studied Biology in High School may have heard of the word ‘Cell’. This is the basic building block of any organism. You may also have deciphered your teacher yapping on end about anaphase, prophase and telophase. Cells naturally undergo division in the ongoing process of repair and / or replacement of their worn out counterparts, growth, reproduction and basically all the processes that are parceled as life-sustaining. Cancer in layman’s language is the propensity for rapid and uncontrolled cell division of hitherto normal cells to the extent of encroaching into and eventually destroying normal body tissue and in most cases proliferating as unsightly nay painful tumors. Tumors are to most intents and purposes a normal medical phenomenon. Most tumors usually end up being an unforeseen accumulation of fluid or tissue on an inconvenient location of the body that is seldom too harmful and can be removed with minimal fuss. These are the benign tumors. The problem is with the malignant tumors. These are quite aggressive, invasive and for lack of a better word – diabolical as they gradually break down the nascent structure of a body tissue, irreparably damaging its functionality. This is life-threatening!

Often when the discussion comes up, people mention something or other, usually death as the great equalizer but apparently the formbook has been torn to shreds by the emergence of this medical monstrosity. It has proven to possess no discrimination whatsoever with regards to demographics. It attacks the rich, the poor, young and old all with equally menacing impact. Those that are publicly venerated in their passing are the newsmakers of the day like our lionized Nobel-prize laureate Wangari Maathai, Former Cabinet Ministers John Michuki and Njenga Karume, Governor. Nderitu Gachagua among a host of other dignitaries. It did not escape my attentions that close to two months ago we had to bid farewell in quick succession to Safaricom CEO - Robert Collymore; the joint pioneer Female County Executive in Kenya, Former Bomet Governor – Her Excellency Joyce Laboso and lastly the most impactful, visionary and altruistic of our current crop of legislators, Former Kibra MP – Hon. Kenneth Okoth. I am sure any of you reading this post is afflicted by this scourge in one way or another by the loss of a close relation or friend that needless to say did not receive nearly as much publicity as the aforementioned sages. Not to alarm anyone but we are all firmly in the firing range as potential sufferers. I am on record in a previous post decrying our predicament as a nation of being unwittingly forced into consuming lead and mercury compounds passed off as sugar, plastic cavorting as rice, meat full of hitherto banned Sodium Metabisulphite, chicken injected with steroids not the least being anti-retroviral therapy medicament for rapid fattening, milk preserved with just a hint of chloroform and cheap liquor laced with methanol expecting no serious health consequences, come on! The Government under the auspices of the Kenya Bureau of Standards is expected to play the role of quality control. How well they do that is a matter of conjecture.

As famous 1970’s pop musician John Lennon once quipped, “Life is what happens when we are busy making plans.” Should we merely be sitting ducks waiting for whatever fate will befall us? In our desperation to reduce the probability of being the next victim many have taken radical steps to avoid almost any food that has a hint of not being organic-based. Conspiracy theorists have laid blame squarely at the door of genetically modified organism and foods which I think is escapist thinking. This is in lieu of the fact that Genetic Modification in itself is a naturally occurring process. In many cases Genetic modification results in a bigger, fleshier fruit that will be misconstrued as the same enlargement of human tissue that often results in cancerous tumours. This in my view is an aberration of reason. For instance, when two neighbouring farms grow two different varieties of the same grain crop and due to pollination, gametes from one crop are transmitted to the next, that inherently results in the alteration of the resultant genome of the next produce. Both the fruits and subsequent seeds will have encoded within new genetic information. Genetic Modification guarantees food security thanks to the additional properties added to a crop by the same process, but could our strife for food security be the portal through which we are letting in our doom? I may harp on and on but to avoid digression and getting labeled as a blind campaigner for GM, I will reserve that topic for another day’s discussion.

What measures are to be put in place to safeguard our lives against the potential havoc being wreaked by this unspeakable infestation?

·       As a taxpayer, I would urge the government to declare Cancer a national disaster and just like HIV-AIDS in 1999, subsidize life-saving medical procedure and medication to give the afflicted a fighting chance against this scourge. The most important resource on earth is humanity. It has become an epithet of empirical wisdom that most families are poised just one medical emergency away from financial ruin. It behoves the government of the day to soften the blow for the millions who find themselves in this quagmire. As a matter of fact, I needn’t be seen to be begging when I urge that each County Referral hospital should take on the role of a Cancer Treatment & Research Centre. We needn’t any longer be partakers of medical tourism in India and Israel when the requisite medical procedures could be found within our borders. With affordable medi-care, even routine check-ups will become a way of life. At inception, Cancer patients will not have any anomalous marks on their foreheads meaning that only these check-ups exist as a means for early diagnosis. Just like any other medical condition, the earlier the diagnosis the faster the path back to good health.

·       Additional to proper medical care, palliative care should be made universal and dignified for all cadres of society regardless of the depth of your pockets. Many nations beat their chest about how civilized they are but as 38^th U.S Vice President; a highly enlightened human-being Humphrey Hubert once put it, “the moral test of a civilization is how well it threats the vulnerable: those at the dawn of life - children, those poised at the twilight of life – the elderly and those at the shadows of life – the sick & handicapped.” No one deserves to suffer the loss of human dignity enshrined constitutionally merely as a misadventure precipitated by the lightness of their pockets. Emergency Cancer treatment should no longer be viewed as a luxury service for the but as a basic need for all.

·       We need a revolution with regards to our lifestyles. Modern life is more sedentary as convenience is availed at our doorsteps obviating the need for physical exercise. Even agricultural activity is mechanized so we no longer have to till the land, weed crops, personally spray insecticides and harvest. Our children no longer have space to play and run around and therein lies the malady. Lifestyle diseases that in times gone by used to afflict middle aged men and women like diabetes, hypertension, arthritis and deep-vein thrombosis are now affecting people as young as those in primary school and that is sufficient cause for alarm. Additionally due to our hectic way of life we have no time to exercise let alone eat healthy. Longevity has been proven to have a direct correlation with consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. When fried meat/potatoes, processed foods and industrially synthesized fruit juices become our only cheaply available source of nutrition, then we cannot say we are doing well. Who is to say that the changes the modern man is undergoing does not make him a suitable substrate for the processes that are a recipe for cancer?

·       The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) is a crucial statutory body in ensuring quality of all products consumed by the citizenry of this country. It is therefore imperative that the personnel is empowered so as to perform this critical role as effectively as envisaged. This includes the hiring of men and women with high-level expertise and integrity to effectively execute their mandate. Enforcement of standards should be a crucial stricture paramount to all. It is tear-jerking that it had to take the initiative of private investigators to unearth the malevolence that has been systematically fed to willing buyers and citizens of the republic in antipathy to our constitutional right to consumer protection. Why are we paying people to sleep on the job? A few heads have rolled and been taken to court at KEBS not forgetting the game of musical chairs at the Ministry of Industrialization. But I dare pry, who could possibly put a numerical value to the deleterious impact of the villainous concord between fiendish entrepreneurs and rogue KEBS aficionados? Our man-eat-man way to capitalism will in due cause cost us our greatest wealth, which is our own collective health.

·       It’s not be lost on the wise, the dictates of the Ministry of Health warnings on Cigarettes and Alcoholic beverages. Overindulgence is harmful to your health. Also the wise man once postured that prevention is better than cure. As per World Medical Organization reports, a critical mass of Lung and Liver Cancers occur for no other reason than our failure to exercise temperance to our vices.

·       There are segments of our population that through no fault of their own find themselves with insufficient melanin to protect their skins against the debilitating effects of Ultra-Violet radiation consequent to our direct equatorial insolation. The black man has long been reviled and discriminated, sometimes turned the butt of unfair jokes for his skin pigmentation but currently as per the dictum of empirical medical knowledge, cases of melanoma and carcinoma have proven to have a lower incidence among the darker population. My message to the skin-lightening brigade is to stop lest your quest for presumption of beauty be turned into an avenue to the unwanted early grave! Hope my message is sufficiently lucid.

·       Environmental degradation and pollution plays an unequivocally crucial role in the occurrence of many medical anomalies. The World owes us nothing but will ultimately require duty of care from the most intelligent of God’s creation. Cutting down forest cover diminishes our natural sponge to absorb not just green-house gases but also compounds that will deplete the ozone layer that is vital in protecting earth from the deprecating effects of cosmic radiation. When waste is let lose into our water supply and air, without a doubt negative consequences will manifest onto humanity. I charge anyone with access to Google Earth to have a look at the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria and compare the water colour with our Ugandan and Tanzanian neighbours and not feel a tinge of dismay if not embarrassment!

·       Last but not least, pray as there is little else that can be done about genetic predisposition to some forms of cancer.

The overarching message here is that even in the midst of so much despondency, there is so much we can do to even if temporarily forestall the surge of the Big C. Resilience and adaptability have been the hallmark of all forms of life that have ever stood the test of time. Uncertainty notwithstanding, let’s put our faith on medical researchers and believe that ultimately as surely as the scope of the human mind eternally grows, we will find a way to tame the unspeakable beast.

THIS FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION MAY JUST SECURE UHURU KENYATTA’S LEGACY

F

          ew of those who have cast even a passing glance upon the Bible have missed the fabulous story of Samson son of Manoah; the Nazirite, from the small tribe of Dan. He was presaged as a great hope to the people even before his conception. He was consequently dedicated to the Lord from the day he was born. As a chosen one he took the vow of abstinence from alcoholic drink, touching the dead and trimming his hair. Consequently, he grew to be physically very strong and of salubrious disposition. His anointment meant that when he came of age he took his position as one of the nascent Judges of the nation of Israel. But somewhere along the line he lost his way. Human beings mingle and naturally friendships develop out of acquaintances. Samson’s youthful exuberance took him past the gates of Gaza and therein he invariably was acquainted with Israel’s sworn nemesis, the Philistines. In my estimation this may have been borne out of contempt as he felt even if the Philistines were such odious people, no weapon formed against ‘God’s anointed’ was ever going to prosper! Familiarity breeds contempt. That is where his downfall began. He was forced into gambling on the bizarre and consequently on losing the bets he had to pay so great a price. His Achilles’ heel that burnt his credentials into a fine cinder was his amorous engagement with the lasses of Philistine extraction. Just as many of the ones we have around even today, they had little loyalty to authentic affection and could have easily been swayed by material possessions and tribal inclination in antipathy to any warmth of attraction they may ever have felt at first. That is how despite being the stalwart who tore apart a lion with his bare hands and even ate honey from the titan’s innards; he was fickle pickings as far as the wiles of feminine carnality are concerned. When he posed the trope “Out of something strong comes something sweet to eat…” who even with the most ingenious of crania could ever have guessed even remotely the general solution to this equation, ‘Runge-Kutta’ formula savoir-faire notwithstanding? The answer was willfully coaxed out of this ace and soon the grapevine around town became the solution to his seemingly insuperable puzzle. As a loser of this infernal frolic he was obliged to provide 42 festive gauntlets, but where was he to obtain them in such short notice? He was forced to become a robber with a tyrant’s violence who tricked a group of men into a scuffle with him that ended in a bloody carnage for the unfortunate victims of Samson’s brutality! 42 men lay dead in cold blood and our Nazirite was forced to play the role of a mortician stripping off the festive garments from the previously benighted but currently deceased lads. He had broken one of the strictures of the Nazirite vow, “Never in your life boy should you ever touch a dead body!” But the Lord was still with him. He also greatly ignited the fury of the Philistine overlords against Israel and he became a harbinger of Israel’s insolence. It was now more than a game and restitution became necessary! He once again found himself in trouble in Gaza when he was seduced into a harlot’s den and given a strong drink that lulled him to sleep. He committed the unpardonable iniquity of placing his trust on a consummate practitioner of the oldest profession devoid of even a shred of concern for her own very body. Wow! A plan was hatched to arrest him at an ungodly hour when his reflexes would have been thought of non-existent. Fortunately, being a light sleeper he was awakened by the commotion outside and went into survival mode. He crept up to the gates and performed the unheralded feat of not just extracting and lifting the entire structure of wood, bars, hinges and foundation but carting it 61 Kilometres up the hill opposite Mt. Hebron. I hear this loss was so crippling that even to this day funds are yet to be availed for the rebuilding of that important piece of protective infrastructure and an unmistakable gape remains where an impregnable hardwood gate once stood! Long story short, the cat was out of the bag. An irresistible woman of the name Delilah was procured to make Samson so passionately in love that even the stranglehold on the secret of his invincibility was loosened and he was ultimately captured and his eyes gauged out for good measure! But in captivity Samson made reparations with his creator, renewed his abhorrence for the barber and it paid dividends. He regained his old strength back. As an irreverent guest during the feast for one of the philistine gods; Dagon, Samson made sure he played to greatest effect the role of party-pooper by literally ‘bringing down the house’ on all that attended. The King, the nobles, generals and the lovely Delilah all perished in one fell swoop. The misfortune of the story is that Samson, a man of potential to be the greatest leader Israel ever had; indeed Dan’s pride & joy, was lost to the world because of falling prey to hubris and personal foibles. This is the situation Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s incumbent President finds himself mired in today. Allow me to indulge y’all.

 

God rarely calls the qualified, more often than not choosing to qualify those called but the question I must pose at this juncture is this: Was U. Kenyatta really called or much less even slightly qualified when he ascended to the apex of Kenya’s political power? What of his Deputy William Ruto? Truth be told, Uhuru Kenyatta acceded to the presidency on the back of a bi-tribal quest to stave off their sons’ potential arrest by the International Criminal Court in case of being found with a heavy of burden of culpability in their crimes against humanity case for meting out inordinate barbarism during the 2007 post-election violence. An indictment in this court for any society that adheres to the rule of law, logic, civility and sensibility must surely be the threshold for non-eligibility for any public office, but not Kenya! The tyranny of tribal arithmetic did not help his cause in the slightest with regards to being a symbol of unity as viewed in the backdrop of the innumerable, unrepresented, numerically disadvantaged tribal entities in Kenya. Moreover, this is exacerbated by the implicit feeling among many Kenyans that he is merely a porch-prince, ill-tooled and utterly uninitiated to the struggles of the ordinary man. Being too care-free, laissez-faire and a guy boasting a suicidally happy-go-lucky attitude to life, much worse to Kenyan unity led to serious questions arising on his credentials for this highly crucial venture of leading a nation’s destiny for not just today but into the future. But the good fortune of the wealth afforded to him by the Kenyatta heritage, not less the recognizable family name ensured that our prince was galloping headlong towards the pinnacle of Kenya’s political power, perhaps unfairly against more deserving candidates. Allegations of a serious lack of sobriety also cast aspersions on the character of the man, Uhuru. Moreover, a perception of leaning more heavily towards the tribe than national well-being weighed heavily on his visage. A feeling that ‘extra-electoral’ mechanisms were involved in this duo’s election cannot be ruled out despite the Supreme Court upholding their victory in 2013. To add insult to injury, on getting elected in a highly contentious election he went on a campaign of protecting only himself against any injury to his personal interests at the expense of state business. Shuttle diplomacy it was called. This in turn hurt the Kenyan economy greatly. 

Not in the least, he also distinguished himself as a standard-bearer of incompetence by endeavoring to appoint ill-fitting individuals to important national positions; worse still gave a smooth landing to political losers who contested the elections on the Jubilee party ticket. Appointments to state corporations became a matter of tribal affiliation with the consideration heavily favouring only two tribes to the disenfranchisement of the rest of the nation. This did not bother Mr. Kenyatta in the least. The culmination of these appointments was manifested in the fiasco that was personified as the Garissa and Westgate terrorist attacks that were a direct consequence of laxity, corruption and incompetence at worst. A Cabinet secretary who attributes smoke during a terrorist attack to burning of a mattress is not just a liability but a great embarrassment to their appointing authority, in this case the President. The cataclysm that was the Westgate terrorist attack came at a great expense to no less the President himself as he lost kith and kin. Empirical evidence has concluded that both attacks could have been forestalled before they happened and the rescue effort better coordinated a fact the President alluded to in retiring the then Inspector General of Police and totally relieving the sitting Cabinet Secretary of all executive powers and relegating the guy back to kitchen duty when making consequent cabinet appointments.

Additionally, the president became moody and apprehensive if not emotional and mushy when he mentioned that he and his government will continue to figuratively ‘eat the meat’ while the apparent naysayers from the opposition masticate on their own saliva. Uhuru Kenyatta did himself no favours when he chose to dabble in more semantics and theatrics as opposed to deliberate action as a means to curb corruption. He portrayed himself as a week character unable to deal with some ‘cartel’ that had dismally been allowed to take root as far as the Office of The President. Both public sentiment and austerity attached to the august office of the President of Kenya slipped consistently even among the most ardent of his supporters. In the absence of good counsel, Parliament itself became an actual battleground when the prevailing sentiment was that the Speakers in both houses were behaving as if they were merely figureheads and marionettes for statehouse. A seeming lack of autonomy saw debate in both houses degenerating to either partisanship at best and fist fights at worst. A day came when a government anti-terrorism bill that covertly gagged the media was forcefully passed in the national assembly amid throwing of missiles and the deputy speaker getting her expensively procured crowning glory of ‘natural hair’ drenched by a fellow woman legislator. In the aftermath of this fiasco, no less another female member of the national assembly brought forward allegations of sexual battery and torn knickers in the course of the foregoing casting a terrible stain on the president’s ability to whip his side into any measure of a disciplined side. This was only in his first term.

If you thought his first term was stormy and acrimonious then you were in for a shocker come the subsequent re-election and commencement of the second term. At re-election time it was threats and intimidation galore to any state officers who did not dance to the Jubilee Party tune. As a highly divisive character, he made it clear that he was going to govern Kenya even if he would forego votes from some regions of the republic. He poured out incendiary vitriol in the direction of the leader of the opposition making it known he thought of him as a perennial loser, perpetual cry-baby and anything but a ‘Mugoroki’ (Madman). This split the nation in half as anyone with an inkling on the on-goings of the previous election was beyond aware of the illusion that Mr. Kenyatta won the election by exactly 50% + 8,000 odd votes and Raila a respectable second at 43%. Hate him or Love him; Former Prime Minister, Mr. Odinga prima-facie commanded the love and appreciation of nearly half the country and was an important factor in any national debate on the destiny of Kenya. Public sentiment and goodwill was heavily in his favour, a fact that can never be disputed or wished away! Derision to the rule of law became his modus operandi as court orders were treated with contempt and synergy between the three arms of government came a cropper in deference to the Executive.

Indisguisable opprobrium was shown to the 4^th Estate and Media Freedom became only an Academic enshrinement of the constitution far removed from reality. We were going to the dogs. The election came under a cloud of the referee body heavily leaning towards the incumbent. The winner was a foregone conclusion early in the contest despite national goodwill being with the opposition side. The election had been so riddled with injustice and illegalities that it had to be petitioned at the Supreme Court. So heavy was the burden of proof against the IEBC that the Supreme Court by a great majority nullified the result of the Presidential Election and called for a new one. They were spared neither the paroxysms of the President nor his indifference to their role. Revisiting was the least they were promised should the sitting President get elected in the second poll. This Poll ended up a non-contest as the illegalities and impartiality, a hallmark of IEBC from the First Poll persisted and the opposition party pulled out of the contest. Consequently, governance became a theatre of the absurd as cat and mouse games between protestors and police, disproportionate violence by security agencies towards the populace and indifference by the president-reelect became the order of the day. The Presidential legitimacy of this figurehead became a matter of conjecture and the economy consequently took another dip. When the Opposition leader ordered for Mass action and economic sabotage as a way to tame this high-handed regime the nation seemed to be at the throes of civil war. So serious was the situation that a bill was being mooted for the secession of a large tranche of Kenya from the whole. Then came January 30^th 2018 and the Opposition Leader took the perilous step to be sworn-in as the People’s President of the Republic of Kenya. We now had 2 presidents and a potentially catastrophic showdown was imminent. Then much like lightening out of azure skies came the 4^th of March handshake that cooled down tensions and gave the President the much needed legitimacy as full leader of Kenya.  

Prior to the handshake it had been fashionable to curry favour with state by simply insulting the Opposition leader in the presence of the president. Many ills were partaken under the very auspices of state but with a lame-duck president, little if no condemnation would be forthcoming. Impunity and corruption reigned supreme under this regime but all this changed after the famous handshake. It is as if new impetus was injected into the president, legitimacy permitting and he soared above partisanship with an unheralded gust of wind under his wings. As if algid water had been splashed upon him, he suddenly woke up to the realities of a rotten legacy he was leaving behind as the worst head of state to ever have had the misfortune to pillage Kenya! As he had already secured the commencement of the constitutionally stipulated two terms he no longer saw the need to split the country merely for political expedience. His new allies became common sense and the rule of law, a move welcomed by a wide spectrum of the country. His focus became clearer. He now discovered the teeth he has always had to take corruption head on throwing both friend and foe literally under the bus. Appointing the youthful and uncompromising George Kinoti as the Director of Criminal Investigations and Noordin Hajj as the Director of Public Prosecution was a masterstroke in sensibly dealing corruption a death knell. Dispensing with the old system for the pristine is to the benefit of all who have the interest of the country at heart.

Men like Rashid Echessa who had done little to embellish his image as an unschooled and boorish character were mercifully ushered out of the cabinet to fanfare even in his native Mumias! Let Ministerial portfolios now be assigned to more competent and enlightened professionals not village louts being rewarded for paying fealty to a lost cause. Sentiments of tribal animosity like ‘Kumira-Kumira, Thuraku –Thuraku’ have been dispensed with for the more conciliatory message of Unity, Love & Peace to portend an all-inclusive development agenda. The President has now put forward the Big 4 Agenda to foster Manufacturing, provide affordable Housing, Improve HealthCare and Food security. All of a sudden, it’s become kaleidoscopically clear that Kisumu is located on the shores of the biggest Fresh water lake in Africa and so locating a Beer Manufacturing plant there would bode well with this aim of job creation and increasing manufacturing where water availability is no conundrum. This is in antipathy to what we have witnessed for years where disenfranchisement of the region was hallowed as ‘uncircumcised barons of poverty’ would be left to roast in their own well-documented obstinacy and unwavering opposition to the government of the day. That change of tact is heart-warming just the same way the President is now viewed as a welcome visitor in Luo-Nyanza, by and large anywhere in Kenya. A few months ago many were wondering if the right driver had been assigned to our collective bus but now he looks too young to retire! 

And sure enough the chickens are coming home to roost as the age of sacred cows draws to a close. With the political salve against perversion in the name of protecting the Presidency exhausted, heads are now rolling. The blue-eyed boy of the Jubilee administration, Mr. Henry Rotich was finally caught with his fingers firmly stuck in the cookie jar and duly fired from his portfolio at treasury and arraigned in court over his transgressions. A sitting Governor from the President’s own backyard is also in hot soup for allotting tenders worth over a Billion bob to an entity with familial links to himself and no other prequalification of either expedience or track record of service delivery. The wheels of the juggernaut called the anti-corruption initiative now appear well greased by political will and are milling them big and small. Not in the least, this could be Mr. Kenyatta’s saving grace as he attempts to salvage his legacy from the fires of mediocrity that has plagued his stint. Win this fight and we will eternally hail him as the greatest leader we have ever had. He will also have set a precedent any of his successors will ill afford to eschew and so in a refrain made famous by our former president H.E. Daniel Moi, “na hiyo ni Maendeleo.”