FLOODS WILL TAKE US BACK TO GENESIS by Daisy Waitherero Wambua

With so many deaths and numerous injuries accruing due to floods in Kenya, it leaves us wondering whether we will need an ark and where is our 21st century Noah? A moment of silence for all victims of this saddening calamity.

Somewhere in Nyeri, a saved drunkard is wondering when Jesus is coming to change all this water into chang’aa (local brew).

If cheap liquor doesn’t wipe us out then Mother Nature surely will. But who is to blame? The government for not building proper drainage systems? The citizens for falsifying the obvious results of littering the environment? The Chinese for simply being Chinese plus we blame them for every malfunction? You and me for not taking initiative to follow up our leaders’ responsibilities? The leaders for requiring you and me to remind them that indulging in development money is bad for business? A trail of questions, yes?

‘We as common mwanainchi shall stand and not fail’ we said this before elections, during elections and during some strikes too. Soon after our morale died along with the attacks, the failure of the government to keep its people safe, the drought, the incompetence of the leaders to merge technology and agriculture to get better produce and now swept away with the floods, the pain of backtracking and the agony of having to begin all over again. The one mistake we made was not electing poor leaders. We will always pin the misfortunes we go through on the people we elect but when will we look in the mirror.

You eat that chili flavored potato crisps covered with a tinge of salt and gallons of vinegar while rushing to your afternoon class, the polythene bag goes away as the taste of the last crisps fading; ten of you do this unconsciously but in unison. He eats sweets as he is diabetic, feels better then eats two more not to leave his taste buds hanging, she eats biscuits, she smokes a full pack of cigarettes and another one gets on that ‘chips funga’ (takeaway fries) as he can’t afford to sit down, the rain is coming.

Hundreds of thousands do this unconsciously and just to notify you we are a little over three million people, the ones who do this consciously claim to be putting food on the table for the cleaner. Sigh. Again with the backward thinking. We are all so caring and sharing. What a good people, correct? Wrong. I will not stand on a moral high ground and pull a Wangari Mathai on you but I will tell you to build your own ark if you are going to cause your own flood.

Shout out toall those in Rongai. \dryasabone \wedemboys \myamarula