It’s time to wake up, reclaim the city from clueless leaders

Congatulations to the Kenya women’s national volleyball team are in order. Malkia Strikers have this week brought down hosts Cameroon, Egypt and Nigeria to book a place in the July-August Tokyo Summer Olympics. It is a high moment for coach Paul Bitok and the Kenyan girls. They swept the boards clean to return an unbeaten victory in Yaoundé. It has been 16 long years of waiting since the nine-times African champions last made it to the Olympics. Apart from our global beaters in track events, we have one more event to look forward to in the forthcoming Tokyo sporting fanfare. The team captain’s cheerful words are worth echoing. After Malkia had beaten the hosts, the skipper, Mercy Moim, had a pithy message for her continent, “Have faith in African coaches.”

Feats like the Malkia victory remind us that Kenya is not living through an endless night of darkness. For our situation often teases us with sadness, despair and even the temptation of cynicism. We are drawn towards asking with the biblical man called Nathaniel, when he first heard of Christ, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” The Kenyan girls have once again reminded us that there are lots of good things in our Nazareth. If we don’t talk about them that frequently in these columns, it is because the house is on fire, anyway. Someone is shooting at locusts with a gun and blowing a whistle at them. Another one is killing his wife and children and thereafter committing suicide. Meanwhile those who should care are trapped in sundry stupors that we need to rescue them from.