The Bahatian

Before we adopted the Western ways of life, celebrating one’s birthday in the African tradition was unheard of. Whereas we had age sets groups then, it was not hard for the elders to follow on the growth and development of the youngsters, until they were initiated into adulthood and became integral members of the society. How they kept track of seasons, without a calendar, in knowing one’s age is still a puzzle.    The scenario is different today.   Birthdays are marked with much fanfare that they’re a kind of mini-ceremonies if not full-fledged, elaborate and lavish ones. Notice the layered candlelit cakes with bottle of champagnes to mark such occasions!

In normal times, the government would be looking for avenues to tax us to death to fund the new financial year budget which will be unveiled later in June. It seems that the outbreak of new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) will make it hard to milk extra taxes from the overburdened citizenry given the slump of business activities as companies have downsized or closed shop altogether.   And given we’re not in ‘normal times’ with this outbreak affecting almost all sectors of the economy, it is succinct to say there is less cash flow in the economy. And as such, it is a struggle for many, especially for those living from hand to mouth, to put food on the table.

Sometimes, circumstances may force us down to that level we were at a certain point in life. I like the Kiswahili dictum that states that he who scales up the literal ladder scales down the same. And, figuratively, we too scale up and down life’s ladder one rung at a time. It is not in contention there are lucky ones who, upon scaling up life’s ladder, remains at the apex until they take that worldly final bow. Not so for a majority in a given population who either climbs up too fast, stagnates midway, before crashing down in a cataclysm of dust or begins that slow but painful down climb.   It shocks when those who see your sudden humbling down or fall from grace celebrates. To some, it is like witnessing Balaam’s donkey speaking!

Anything can go wrong when you think you’ve everything figured out to the last minute detail. And when you’re having that feeling that you’ve dodged a problem or avoided a bad situation, you suddenly find yourself in thick of same, or somehow being confronted by it, rendering credence that even the best-laid plans sometimes do not work out!   My effort to evade public transport, or any mass transport system for that matter, came a cropper and I found myself using the same means I had done my utmost best to avoid! With the coronavirus out there, you don’t know who may sneeze or give a wheedling cough and have all passengers contracting the virus – provided it has spread this far.

Whoever controls the media controls the kind of narrative the masses will hear. And where the government has a stake, the sheeple have been dumbed down by well coordinated narratives when it comes to discoursing issues of national importance.   For a full week, the Kenyan media was full of glowing tributes with acres of pages or airtime devoted at lionizing the former head of state. Going by the positive reviews our media gives every politician with a large stature upon taking the final worldly bow, it is evident that all the political sins, both of omission or commission, are whitewashed and the departed celebrated as a saint!

That death has morphed into a big industry is not in contention. Funeral homes, crematoriums, carpenters, funeral hire services, to name but a few, are the major beneficiaries. Traditional African setting had a way of dispensing with the dead, and, unlike today, big and elaborate funerals were unheard of. In some customs, the dead were simply tossed in the bushes for the scavengers to do postmortems and inter the remains in their bellies. Not today where the dead are mourned in such a fashion as to leave the bereaved surprised.   Where there is a dead body, vultures will gather. This saying, straight from the Bible, is aptly true when applied to human vultures. Any news of a dead person will bring even those who never knew the deceased to the bereaved home. Real and pseudo mourners will camp there, until the final journey of the deceased into the six feet resting pit.

Grasping with a job loss is always the hardest part for many. Consider the long process of looking for a job, including underselling one’s worth just to be employed. The sad reality in Kenya is that you’ll hardly find a company advertising for vacant positions the traditional way other than relying on internal references and thus cutting on hiring and recruitment costs. And in many instances, many of the job adverts in print media are simply companies PR stunts, as the hires to fill the gaps are likely to have been identified long before prospective applicants are subjected to job interviews.   That many a Kenyan will have worked with different companies before hitting retirement age, or venturing in own businesses, is not in contention. Gone are the days when employees used to work for one employer their entire career lives, unless in the civil service.