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Rongo Administration Police Commander David Ngetich checks a school boy's shoes as he tries to explain to him why the police were concerned about people who wore open shoes to DP William Ruto's function in Migori on Sunday, October 13. All men especially the youth who donned in open shoes were turned away. PHOTO: STANLEY ONGWAE
We love being copycats, here in Kenya. When we see something that works, or which affords the instigator a certain level of notoriety, we simply mass-copy it and hope to get the same reactions as the first mover.
Barely days after a Facebook page gained infamy for exposing dead beat dads, dozens of copies were up and running, though none quite achieved the notoriety of the first page.
And so on to shoes. The story is told of how the Migori governor was on the receiving end of some unusual missiles – shoes thrown at him by locals unhappy with his leadership but too angry to bother looking for more meaningful weapons.
As a projectile, a shoe is not very effective at delivering injury, which is why the Americans have not bothered to invent any shoe-lobbing guns.
But as an expression of disgust and extreme disapproval, it is a perfect vehicle with which to let leaders know just how lowly they are ranked. The Migori County Government, understandably, was rather concerned that these crazy locals might choose to embarrass their governor again, when Deputy President Ruto went visiting.
Embarrassment risk
And so Migori Administration Police decided to turn away everyone in open shoes, from the function. The reasoning was that open shoes are easy to take off and lob at dignitaries – which is, of course, very bad manners. They should go further. Migori Governor Okoth Obado needs to unapologetically get tough on his charges.
He should ban the wearing of shoes at any public rallies. Shoes pose a real, demonstrable security and embarrassment risk, and there is no good reason why locals need to wear shoes anyway: everyone knows that shoe-wearing is a modern fad hardly four decades old.
When you go back to the colonial days, you realise everyone walked around barefoot. In fact, why stop there? Maybe the governor could just ban shoes outright in Migori. The willy-nilly wearing of shoes by locals has made citizens go soft, with many not knowing how invigorating it feels to walk barefoot and maintain contact with Mother Earth.
Here is hoping that the good governor does the right thing and bans these Western inventions completely – other counties might also follow suit!
