Let's go back to basics and know when the rains started to beat us

By Peter Kimani

I skived work yesterday to go to St Andrew’s Church. You see, I don’t always go to church, so I thought it was opportune to combine school-closing ceremony with some worship.

Before long, the children were strutting down the pews to showcase fashion wear of all manner or were up the stage to perform skits.

Oh, some useful things to set the Christmas mood, I thought, before turning to the vibrating phone to extinguish some determined caller. I saw several slouched heads and it was easy to tell why: there are Facebook pages to update, emails to read through, not to mention SMSs, the sort that announce endless competitions where one can win several million shillings, just like that. But one has to enter as many SMSs as possible.

I was similarly distracted by the thoughts of millions to be made by texting (just let your fingers do the walking, some marketers persuade), that I missed the introductions of the church minister or even his readings.

tough questions

Which is just as well, for names bring baggage with them, especially if the expectation is misplaced.

So, there I was, seated patiently, waiting for the speaker to conclude his remarks, which I later gathered were based on Jeremiah’s construction of a wall, or something close to that.

In the next 25 years, he said brightly, the children in our midst are going to be company directors, managers and mayors of the many cities that shall be developed out of the many counties in Kenya. There were enthused nods from parents. Then he posed the question: What have we invested in them, beyond education, to develop the values that shall make them resist corrupt, greed and avarice that afflict this country?

These are tomorrow’s drivers. Shall they be driving like matatu drivers?

These are tough questions that we rarely contemplate because we are all in a ratrace in search of elusive prosperity that has little regard for values such as honesty.

Worse still, those that display honest tendencies are shoved aside because they are creating a traffic jam, and things need to move faster before the law catches up with the culprits.

Coming soon after the police confirmation that the new Makadara MP Sonko is a fugitive from justice, and that some men flying ministerial pennants on their limousines are drug traffickers, the pastor’s words bear fresh meaning.

Our children are only armed with qualifications that smirk of fraud—the school admission is secured through bribery because they scored low marks; and money to buy exam papers is made available without hesitation.