Let's Ask those Tough Questions

Whomever said that ‘every day is a learning day’ ought to have patented and copyrighted the phrase because every day happens every day. I have often heard the tired refrain,  ‘another day, another dollar’ but given the times, a dime will so much suffice.

I know you are doing the math, no, per Bill Clinton, Arithmetic. Now put down that calculator app and stay with me on this third rated rant will you!

What I learned the other day is that, intellectuals by their very nature ask questions, they are curious.  Yea well, that cat may have been gotten, but I am sure it went to the other world knowing a thing or two.

To cut to the chase, I want to address, unmask and undress the perception that we, Kenyans will buy into anything as long as it bears that stamp, GK. All caps bold and underscored.

Unfortunately, gone are the days when as a nation, our response to the questions, 1.“Have you understood?” was an emphatic YES, and 2. “Have you any questions was followed by a resounding, NO! 

The reason to this newfound enthusiasm turned skepticism, note, not cynicism, may have been buoyed by the exposure that education and enlightenment brings.

Long agreed is the fact that, education doesn’t have to be acquired solely in academia, but in everyday experiences; for, isn’t learning whatever happens to us between the time we are born to the time we breathe our last?

And since we are breathing, because I am writing this, and (hopefully) you are reading along, let’s take time out of our time to ask those tough questions………

1. Is the Kenyan diaspora going to vote in the upcoming elections, if so, how and where?
2. Kenyan embassy in the United States, which is more; average minimum wage in the US or first and second tea/coffee break at a Kenya Diaspora Conference? [Hint $10]
3. Je, tunajivunia kuwa waKenya ama tunavumilia?
4. Are we first Kenyan, then tribe or vice versa?
5. Who should go to prison: an employee who steals Kshs.1000 from h/er employer to pay for a medical bill; or a bureaucrat who stashes Kshs.50 million of taxpayers’ money to an offshore bank account?
6. How long does it take for a Mwananchi to become a Mwenyenchi?
7. Is Kenya ready for a Dorobo, Sengwer, Jibana, Okiek or Ribe president?
8. For how long shall we act the victims rather than Victorians and Victors?
9. Are we yet again going to aim our fire, nay, point our finger of blame at me, the messenger or are we going to….......
10. In the words of one McClean Khatete going to look at our collective selves in the mirror and recollect, reflect, redefine and redefine our destiny?

Those are tough questions that I am neither qualified nor justified to answer, for, after all, I am just but another Kenyan.

Or am I?

By Joji Muwangi

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