With the New Year, let's try a little gentleness to survive these hard times

Lake Bogoria Spa Resort Group General Manager Lydia Dentewo, tourists and staff usher in the New Year in style, on January 1, 2026. ‎[Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Folks, Happy New Year!

As you must know, I spent my first hours of the New Year at my desk working, which affirms my resolution to keep my writing going, against all odds. This, after all, is the year that we have been promised that Prezzo Bill Ruto will deliver this great nation to Canaan, which he says is another name for Singapore.

In the years gone by, I’d have said was a pack of crap, because I like to give it straight and quick, which is why one of my resolutions for the New Year is to treat Kenyans gently. So, when I say the Canaan-Singapore chicanery is an “interesting,” idea, and Kenya is in dire need of fresh ideas, please note that’s a repressed rebuke.

This strategy is already starting to bear fruit. Over Christmas, I drove through several counties to report to a B&B at the foot of Mount Kenya. The dwelling was modest, which was fine because I am a man of modest tastes, but when we unpacked and somehow there was no room to stash away the bags, I was very irritated manoeuvring a hop-step-and jump every time I moved from one room to another.

Yet, I was sufficiently constrained not to issue a relocation order to the entire household and instead, I diligently cultivated other activities to survive the coop-effect. We took long walks through the wooded neighbourhood, taking in the clean air and the compelling views of the Big Mountain.

We detoured through a construction site—that’s how idle we were—and met a guy who’s putting up some units, not to compete with the folks at Affordable Housing, but for rent. “If I sell, then I lose control,” the man said.

The man is so determined not to cede control on anything, he said he wouldn’t consider changing house designs to maintain uniformity, even if the jutting roofs would obscure the views of the Big Mountain that gave this nation its name.

Afterwards, a friend arrived. Power supply had been interrupted, and it remained so for eight hours, so two idle middle-aged men sat and did the math. If the construction man had tenants he could control, we figured he’d require 17 years to recoup his investment.

Ultimately, our departure from the B&B was blamed on Kenya Power & Darkness. “We’d really have loved to stay on,” I offered the landlady, with a straight face, “But we can’t do much with such uncertainty on power supply…”

It worked, so I think I am learning quickly to speak out of the two sides of my mouth, just like our politicians. Consequently, I will refrain from concluding that the Canaan-Singapore is a coinage that seeks to blur the fantastical with the physical, so as to weld Raila Odinga’s political kingdom’s to Prezzo Ruto’s by blurring the lines to breed confusion.

Nor will I remind readers to check what happened to the “hustler” narrative that was propounded for four years, and whose fortunes have dimmed irredeemably over the last three years. Those who lament over the state of the affairs, I conveniently remind, are the ones who cast votes. I had no vote to cast, so we should be the ones lamenting because their choices were calamitous.

Instead, let me share, very briefly, a tale that my friend shared over Christmas. Eons ago, while he plied his trade in the newsroom, a rather insensitive boss wrote his junior a memo: “You have a head, use it.”

After the paper had gone to bed, the junior scribe walked to his boss and calmly told him he indeed, he had a head and he had used it to acquire his advanced education and run his family. In the spirit of the New Year, and I’d say Kenyans use their heads, they just need to ensure we don’t get the wrong head.