Things that can make your man cry

A Kamba MP recently said ‘kings don’t cry’ as he enviously attacked Kenya’s most progressive governor. He is wrong! Kings cry. Bill Clinton was often moved to tears, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia always carried a hankie in case a fit of tears hit him, DP Ruto has shaken with sobs in church (and when little girls do praise poetry for him) and Obama let a tear roll down his cheek when his grandma died a day before he first became President of America.

I am in Meru West Wind hotel as I write this, and last night I welled up remembering that I was in this very hotel two years, one month and twelve days ago when my brother fell ill in Nairobi, was taken to hospital and passed away there, two weeks later. Governor Alf Mutua attended a fundraiser recently, and because he is a man of heart, he is a king who weeps for his people when political bastards are trying their damnest to keep him from getting piped water to poor homesteads in Masaku.

It is enough to make a grown man cry, walking through some streets in Nairobi.

My old teacher Prof Kivutha Kibwana cried in Makueni when he thought some MCAs were trying to polish him off, so that ‘kings don’t cry’ comment in Makueni was an ironical nonsense.

Men who never shed a tear in this day and age (I never saw my old man cry, except when Maradona scored that wonder goal against England in ‘86) are hard hearted barbarians. Mugo wa Wairimu makes me and many men ashamed to have such a guy associated with our species - and what he has allegedly done can make a man cry tears of rage.

If a man wins a medal in Beijing and sheds a tear, thinking of all the hardships he endured to get there, would you call such a chap a cry baby?

Talking of babies, my eyes got a little bit moist in August when little Chelsea fractured her wrist falling off a high gate which an older boy had hoisted her on, on a whim, on a dare.

‘Tony, mimi siogopi kupanda gate juu,’ she said by way of explanation as I dashed her to hospital.

If you cannot provide as a man for your family, its all right to cry. Italian opera can be poignant to the point of tears. I remember reading Arundhathi’s ‘The God of Small Things’ with tears in the eyes at one point.

And which man who has watched ‘Saving Private Ryan’ will not say they didn’t well up at the end when (spoiler alert) died?

Liverpool and Harambee Stars supporters are used to tears. Only once have I wept, though, because of a soccer game - on May 21, 2008, when Chelsea lost to Man United in the Champion’s League final on penalties.

In Moscow! There was a ‘potato’ in my throat and potato vodka in a blurry glass before me when John Terry missed the winning penalty. Later, Terry cried.

Even gods cry.

That’s why the Bible has that verse - ‘Jesus wept.’ [email protected]