Fly and land all you want, we don't go where leaders point

Receive the season’s greetings from the green village. We have begun plastering and garnishing our houses with cow dung and alluvial white soil, to give the walls the sheen of the season.

Pulsating joy is in the air. Jamhuri and Christmas are around the corner, to bring welcome relief from the dreary activities of the dimming year. The youth are all over the place. They swagger gingerly, displaying the zest of life on the roadside, relieved to be free from Dr Fred Matiangi’s plenipotentiaries, recently passed on to Amb Amina Mohamed. The spirit of joy to the world is here.

Nairobians and sundry outsiders have begun pouring in in style. You can tell them from their impatient machines that want to toss everyone else off the roads. This year’s festive season is a special one. For the first time, we have asphalt roads in the village. We are still admiring our brand new tarmac, in total disbelief.

It is true, after all, that something good is happening in the country, amidst the political noise and the haste. You cannot wish away the tarmac from Emanyulia all the way to Sidindi in Siaya and on to the rest of the world.

The countryside is undergoing transformation. Roadworks define Kakamega County, from Kaburengu and Malava to Kakamega and from Manyala, Shiatsala and Emanyulia – all the way to the place called Ewa Akatsa. This is the way it should be.

Former Senator Boni Khalwale will want to spare a moment to experience the joy of this transformation. His home market centre, Emalinya, is brightly lit up at night, like any city street. Indeed, the countryside is getting progressively lit up. There is also water here and water there – water, water everywhere, as the poet ST Coleridge said. Transformational change is here, make no mistake.

We remain prayerful, regardless. We are prayerful that the town folk, arriving here for the festive season, will not mess up the party with their machines. They exhibit worrying impatience on our new roads. We hope that we will not mess up the roads with a plethora of bumps to tame the town folk. We are also prayerful that those doing the roads will bring them to the right standards.

Application of emergency brakes by the marauding town machines should not, for example, erode the tarmac. You get the impression that this could happen, if the layering is not brought up to the professional standards. I will give you a full report at a later time. For now, we are over the moon here in Emanyulia and Khumutibo.

We have of course seen Senator Boni in the countryside. He arrived with the Flyers’ Team led by Deputy President William Ruto. The DP is the later day Lord of the Flyers. They fly here and fly there, talking about hopes and dreams for a brighter day for the DP and for themselves. The day will come in 2022 when – Senator Boni says – they will kick the Deputy President upstairs.

They will make him Mister President, they say. But here in Emanyulia, we have learned to look at Deputy Presidents eyes askance. For, have we not produced three of them in a row and thrown out two of them, when we thought they had rubbed us the wrong way?

Times were, when we gave Kenya Musalia Mudavadi, Michael Wamalwa and Uncle Moody Awori in succession as the country’s Numero Deux. When we were not happy with Mudavadi and Uncle Moody, we sent them on sabbatical. The people of Emanyulia have told me to share some honest thoughts with the Deputy President.

Our people want the Deputy President to understand that here in Emanyulia we don’t follow our political leaders. They follow us instead. Our leaders find where our hearts are and go there with us. We send on sabbatical leave all those who want us to follow them.

The villagers have said to me, “Son of Emanyulia, tell our good neighbour from Sugoi that those gallivanting with him in the countryside will lead him into the political slough of despond. Tell him to beware those who think that he is the Lord of the Flies and that they are the flies. He must listen to our heartbeat. Let him listen intently and hear what our heartbeat is saying. For, it is telling the world where we will be in 2022. Let all and sundry beware the vibrations and the sonorous buzzing from the bathroom. For, the serpent hisses where the sweet birds sing.”

Finally, the villagers have told me, “Son of Munyu, please talk to the bullfighter of Emalinya. Remind him of the year 2017, when you told him that Ambetsa Oparanya of Emabole was going to teach him a political lesson he would never forget. You remember how you wrote in the newspaper that the man of Emabole would beat the bullfighter in the competition for the governor’s job by a margin of 70 per cent?

"It turned out that you were wrong. He was beaten by a margin of 72 per cent. Tell him that his latest dance – the dance of the Lord of the Flies – risks putting the final nails on his political casket. For, he is not where our hearts are. However, to each one his choice. The foolish fly goes to the grave with the dead.

“Tell the Son of Sugoi that here in Emanyulia, we listen to the words of Max Ehrmann, who told us to go placidly amidst the noise and the haste. We avoid loud and vexatious persons, for they are a distress to our spirit. We listen even to the dull and ignorant. Mostly, however, we just listen to our hearts.”

-The writer is a strategic public communications adviser.  www.barrackmuluka.co.ke