Happy New Year! But, try say that to Tana residents

By Njoroge Kinuthia

Happy New Year. PointBlank is back with a bang (and do we say?) But, perhaps, we are wrong to scream Happy New Year. Not that it’s late — the year is still young.

“But, what’s so ‘happy’ about the new year?” That’s the question that a friend with half of his head buried in bandages after a New Year’s Eve drunken brawl asked me  when I wished him a happy 2013. In retrospect, I think he was right. Isn’t it foolhardy to scream ‘happy’ to a person groaning in pain?  The right thing, I guess, is to be frank: “This a bad year brother, but (who knows) we might just overcome”.

Blood and tears

I daresay, we should all have boycotted the New Year celebrations. Why celebrate a year that began on a bad note and one that was preceded by an even worse one on the security front?

Why celebrate when there is no light at the end of the tunnel in Tana River, a river overflowing with blood and tears? Why celebrate while death still lurks in Suguta and Mathare valleys. Why celebrate when some are busy preaching hatred ahead of polls. Why celebrate while Al Shabaab is killing without sababu (reason)? Why celebrate?