The tale of two hard-working but differently treated Kenyans

One of the best African poems I read as a young man was Ugandan Henry Barlow’s ‘Building the Nation’. The stinging satirical piece of literary art talks of two people who have just done their part in building the nation. One is a PS who had to attend a sumptuous luncheon at a high-end resort aptly name the Vic. The other is his driver. On the way back, the PS – who has had cold beer, friend chicken, ice cream and coffee – breaks wind and keeps yawning to stay awake, as the driver yawns out of hunger pangs, which he downplays by saying he is slimming.

It is to Barlow’s poem the mind wonders with all the stupefying figures being bandied of money either stolen or offered as a bribe. Like the hungry driver in the poem, we watch on TV as the lucky ones with connections to people in power narrate how they pocketed millions for supplying air to the State.