Celebrate yes, but also pray for bleeding Kenya

 

A patient is received at Kenyatta National Hospital Emergency wing. (Photo: Boniface Okendo)

It’s Christmas and millions of Kenyans will flock places of worship to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Others will mark the day at home with loved ones or visit the less fortunate in society. For many others there will be little to celebrate.

The patients abandoned in hospital by striking medical workers and an indifferent government; the families burying their dead following clashes in the Kerio Valley and other violence hotspots in the country; the families displaced by land sharks and their political godfathers and finally the millions who wish to celebrate but do not have the means. Indeed, this has been a tough year for many Kenyans, but the suffering was not inevitable.

Christmas offers the opportunity to soul-search and commune with each other in a way that the daily rigours of work cannot allow us to. It’s a season of reflection and compassion, a perfect opportunity to make peace with man and God through word and deed. For Kenyans there can never be a more fitting celebration than reaching out to those without food and shelter.

The sick who cannot nurse their pain and sorrow and widows and orphans whose breadwinners have met unjust deaths. All these people need cheer not least because their suffering should be our sorrow but because collectively as a nation we are bleeding on all fronts.

Our politics is in a shambles. The economy, stupid. The men and women who swore to protect the Constitution are fast turning against it. Most of our leaders have become buccaneers, extortionists and murderers. Debate in Parliament is guided by ethnic chauvinism and not facts. Truth is the scarcest commodity in the corridors of power. Everyone, whether in government or the opposition, is looking for the opportunity to steal from Kenyans.

Away from politics, our roads have become deathtraps, not least because of lax law enforcement and reckless driving. Thousands of people have been killed and many others injured in road accidents that would have been avoided with more careful driving, proper road sign-age and good old common sense. Every festive season has been preceded and marked by carnage on the road, and this year may not be any different if motorists do not act sensibly.

There are all indications that 2017 will be a difficult year — the cost of living is likely to keep rising, and a decline in investment is expected. Add to this the uncertainty stalking the next elections, complete with the shenanigans of our elected leaders and you have every reason to say a prayer for our country this festive season.