Wednesday 7 October 2015

‘RANGI YA THAO’

The bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made and God loves all his children. I have often heard people make fun of this verse by saying that some people are more fearfully made than wonderfully made. I cannot say that I have never used this verse to make fun of someone but lately I have taken time to appreciate people regardless of their looks. They say that beauty is skin but I often wonder whether everyone is really keen on understanding the meaning of this phrase. This is because the sad case today is that most people this days base other people’s character in accordance to their looks rather than their personality.

I had the pleasure of visiting Mombasa at the start of this year and I was so excited. I was looking forward to visiting the town everyone referred to as “Mombasa raha”. I had a lot of expectations towards this visit but I did not anticipate the shock I would get at seeing the number of women who have bleached their skin. I once came across a woman whose bleaching had gone wrong leaving her face which was dark in color with patches of lightness. I must admit she wasn’t a pretty sight to behold. I remember recounting what I had seen to one of my workmates and all I got was no surprise plus her advice to get used to bleaching cases gone wrong over there. It not like I had never seen a woman who had bleached her skin before, I just had never encountered one whose bleaching had gone wrong before.

This ordeal and three other more made me ask myself the question of why would someone risk damaging their skin permanently and looking horrible in order to be light??  What is so abhorring about the dark color that many people are bent on changing by bleaching it?? Is there some privilege that society accords to light skinned people that dark colored people do not get?? Questions, questions I kept asking myself about this bleaching trend that is gripping our country. It made me wish that these many ladies who have bleached their skin can sit down with me and share the privileges they are now getting in order to give me an insight to the causes that make them risk damaging their skin.

As an avid reader of living magazine which is an issue in the daily nation every Wednesday, I once encountered a story about a woman who struggled with being taunted about her dark color leading to her having a low self-esteem. She spoke of how it took her a long time for her to accept herself and embrace her dark color. Why would fellow Kenyans who most are of dark color torment another fellow Kenyan due to her dark color. I mean we are all African so we are all dark according to white people no matter how one is light skinned we are still black to them and I doubt getting rid of one’s dark color can change this. Maybe this is one of the reason most ladies are bleaching their skin these days. I have had guys give compliments to each other due to the fact that the other guy has a light skinned girlfriend. Apparently being light skinned makes you automatically beautiful nowadays. May be this is another reason why many women and even small girls are bleaching their skin in order to be considered beautiful by society.

 Lupita Nyong’o while being honored with the best breakthrough performance award at the 7th annual black women in Hollywood luncheon last year she talked about dark beauty. She talked about how a small girl wrote to her telling her of how she wanted to bleach her skin so as to change her dark skin color when she was inspired by her not to do so as she has embraced her dark color. This is a woman who has woman an Oscar award despite the fact of her dark skin color which she has embraced. This should be an example to girls out there that you can achieve anything despite of your skin color and still be regarded beautiful.
Selling of bleaching products is illegal in Kenya so accessing the bleaching creams, pills, ointments and lotions is not allowed. Many bleaching products are obtained in the market still as traders have found a way to have access to them. According to pressbox.co.uk, every bleaching product contains two main chemicals, hydroquinone and mercury, both toxic. These products work in the short term to lighten the skin by stopping the production of melanin in the body. The more one uses this product the more at risk they have of having skin cancer. These are the extreme dangers of bleaching ones skin.
 I believe that no one should require society’s validation when it comes to outward appearance. People should base other people’s character on their personality and not looks. Maybe if this happens we will have less case of females’ lightening their skin through dangerous means in order to be considered beautiful. If one has no self-love changing of skin color cannot change this. So next time your mother, wife, sister, girlfriend, best friend or anyone in your close relations wants to change their skin color please remind them they are all beautiful and they should embrace their color because 20 years down the line they might regret it.







Sunday 10 May 2015

YES, LADIES LOVE FOOTBALL



Last year I was sitting with a good friend of mine watching television when the coca cola advertisement about the world cup came up. I noticed that the advertisement was making her angry so I proceeded to ask her what the problem was. She told me that she thought the advertisement portrayed females in a bad light when it came to football games. She said it portrayed them as people who are clueless about football and as people who just watch the game to see handsome footballers with good muscular chests which some of them tend to famously show when celebrating after scoring a goal. 

She went on to tell me how some men irritate her by stereotyping women as people who do not anything about the game or cannot sit down to watch a full match. Suggesting it was high time for those men who stereotype women that way to understand that there are women out there who love the game and understand its dynamics. It got me thinking of the number of times I have received weird stares from some guys after overhearing me discussing something related to football. Luckily for me I stopped getting irritated long time ago and I brush them off as I have loved football from an early age in my life. 

It got me remembering my childhood days when I started knowing about football. My big brother who is almost my age mate used to go with my small sister and I to play around the neighborhood and we got to play. I used to particularly love being a goalkeeper as I used to find it easy. At the end of the day we would go home very dirty but very satisfied.

I started watching football when I was twelve years old back in primary school. I must admit I started watching it for wrong reasons but in due time I got to develop a genuine interest in watching the game. I had seen a photo of Cristiano Ronaldo when he was in Manchester united and I was totally smitten. I started watching the Barclays premiere league particularly Manchester united so that I could watch him play and my interest developed from there. My overzealous father and my two big brothers also contributed majorly to my interest. After developing a genuine interest, I asked one of my brothers to explain the basics of a game, how the teams play and I got to know other teams too. Those were the good old days when Manchester united playing arsenal was a big deal and the rivalry was strong. 

Back in high school my interest started to go down as I was in an all-girls high school and not many of them were fans. By good chance I found out some girls shared my interest and appreciated the game. We became fast friends and frequent discussions of the game were the norm for us. We used to ask our math’s teacher Mr. Thumbi for the scores of the Barclay's premiere league which is played during the weekend or run for the newspapers in the library so as to know the scores. We even ended up convincing our principal to let us watch the world cup final 2010 between Spain and Netherlands and it was on a weekday.

After finishing high school my interest was back in full force as I was back home with my father and brothers as diehard fans. I used to ask my brother to tag along during the weekends in restaurants and pubs to watch the Barclay's premiere league. I used to find myself in situations where I was the only female in a sea of men watching a game while accompanying my brother. I used to endure the weird stares and had to curtail my talk when it came to commenting about the team I was supporting. I have sat in pubs patiently with my brother enduring the smell of beer which I do not like at all and drunkards for the sake of not missing a game.

I particularly loved last year as the world cup was in Brazil and I wasn’t locked up in high school and I could watch the game. My father had also installed a DSTV decoder so I could watch the games from the comforts of my home. I used to hurry up from my judicial attachment, refrain from making any detours so that by seven o’clock am seated comfortably watching the game which would be on. I earned myself a lot of scolding from my mother who expected me to cook supper but I refused to watch the interesting games. As I continue with my love for football I have gotten used to some men stereotyping females as incapable of loving and knowing about football with their weird stares when I discuss about the game. I have learnt to deal with that as I would rather spend my weekends watching the Barclay's premiere league rather than do anything else.

I might not be a fanatic like some people out there, still get confused when free kicks are awarded or when a player is offside but I can still follow a game with ease. I am still learning things when it comes to clubs but all in all football is my favorite sport. To all the stereotypes out there who think females are incapable of watching a football game due to loving the game its high time u change your mindsets. There are females out there who watch the game for the fact that they love it and it’s their favorite sport.

Thursday 15 January 2015

Kenyas Parliament a shadow of Burkina Fasos



In the recent times Burkina Faso has made headlines for all the right reasons, at least for me. One would think that this is country is out of Africa and so it happenings have been unfamiliar breaking news in Africa and here in Kenya.

August 5th 1960, was the date they gained their independence from the French, only three years and 129 days earlier than Kenya a period so short that even an elephant wouldn’t have given birth twice.

First it was marked by the unanimous protest by its citizens to remove their long serving president Blaise Compaore who seized power in a 1987 coup that saw the assassination of Africa’s undying spirited leader Thomas Sankara. This was successful as now there is a transition government lead by Lt-Col Isaac Zida, an epitome that people power is greater than any individual/cartel/dictatorial power.

Second and most resent was the halving of the member of parliaments salary. This is laughable in a Kenyan situation as their Burkina counterpart were said to be earning no more than $3,000 (Kes 273,000). I know this can only be less or equivalent to our MCA. The thought of this is like a tickle under your feet without the sound of a joke yet you laugh your heart and any other organ out.

With our bloated number of politicians and their high salaries, one can only wonder why our police, doctors & teacher are usually dissatisfied yet these monies circulate among few individuals, whereas in Burkina Faso MPs half their pay with a reason that it will build confidence in democracy and promote better governance.

Democracy and better governance to a Kenyan politician are mostly equated to hate speech, undermining authority, terror sympathy and or violent against our leaders. 

The closest our leaders can come to taking a pay cut is if they ask for twice as much as they currently earn and with a lot of public outcry they resolve not to take or to pass their income increment. These politicians will again come out unembarrassed by their actions and intention, horny for not having their increment and in need of Kenyans romance to give them an orgasm trying to push us into further poverty.

I dream for a country where money will not be the hook that catches our votes and fattens us during elections only for us to grow thin and suffer malnutrition for five years till the next election. Burkina Faso’s parliament has set precedence for Kenya’s

Wednesday 14 January 2015

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Tuesday 13 January 2015

We are our own Enemy



I have no shame to say that most of my greatest friends are not from my tribe, yet with this I seem not to talk tribe or touch about their tribal king when am around them; reason being am playing it safe not to upset, as matters politics is never an agenda with us. If I have to talk and argue about politics and the state of our nation I only do this at the discretion of a few who are open-minded and mostly with people that are inclined to my opinion.

This is the norm with most people around me, not I alone, even my friend or people who are privy to my tribe tend to shy off when they want to objectively disagree with the person am inclined politically. This has been the genesis of our failure as citizens that we so enjoy in our countries political environment. This on the other hand has benefited the political elites as they marshal tribe before development, community before agendas, regions before the country etc.

Our failure to communicate as a nation and as a people who should have a voice over their leaders has made it possible for us to always come in the umbrella we are one only in tragedy and when the nation is nearly to its knees, remember we ought to be always one.

Moving from the Moi era was celebrated and seen to be the beginning of a new start to the nation which has seen citizens enjoy some fundamental bills of right (Chapter IV of the constitution) and the promulgation of the new constitution.

Political sycophancy and my tribe my time to eat analogy has made it possible for things to stay the same as they change. This has been reflected by the rising number of people in social media that spew hatred against other communities without the sense that we ought to be a one people nation, this they do to echo their political inclinations fault such as tribal appointments, selective justice, selective developments and failures in overall performance both in government and in the opposition.

These sycophants make sure that they benefit from cheap publicity while dividing the nation far apart with the blessings of their masters and wouldn’t allow a critique even from their own tribe to say anything contrary to what the “majority” of the tribe wants lest they be seen as the moles or against the whole tribe. This impedes free thinking people and only waits to echo and support only what the tribal Kings want.

Our free thinking is only limited to out of politics environment but with a silent disgust in our other environments knowing that the person next to you doesn’t approve of our political inclination. Politics affects all other environments. We can pretend not to want it but we can’t live without it. 

We are our own enemy as in all our struggles we can only look at the next person to help; same applies to the tribal kings, in need the always come together and help each other not caring that the last second “their people” were in war against each other. We need to learn from our leaders to be sarcastic in their eyes, have free and respectful communication, vote wisely and to our own personal advantage and always be truly one; only this will beat them in their own game.