If it's my son, he is innocent

When one of our relatives or friends is accused of misbehaving, our first instinct as human beings is to protect them from the ‘false’ claims.  In our eyes, our kith and kin can do no wrong.

Try accusing my brother of something evil or criminal and I will stare at you in disbelief, accuse you of malice and dismiss your ignorant claims. After all, this is my 'innocent' brother we are talking about. Never mind that I hardly know anything about him any more. My brother is not capable of veering from the straight and narrow simply because he is my kin. No wonder they say blood is thicker.

Even in schools, when a child is sent home for a misdemeanour, the parents take him back breathing fire. Their fury caused by an unimaginable accusation visited upon an innocent child – in his parent’s eyes.

It comes as no surprise then when Kenyan politicians retreat to their tribal or political cocoons for protection knowing very well that they will find the very desired protection therein. No one in the political class can ever be held to account without his kinsmen coming to his rescue with cries of persecution.

Lately the sense of kinship has extended to political parties. Whereas in the past a party could easily treat their disgraced member like a disposable fall guy; recently we are seeing strange things where party officials rally behind one of their own, whenever he or she is put in the dock.

It is not uncommon to hear claims of "our members are being targeted" or "they want to decimate our numbers before the next election" among other tactics employed to protect members from alleged persecution.

While it is good to show loyalty to one of your own, the law must be allowed to run its course. Our friends and relatives are not infallible and they should be allowed to face the consequences of their actions, without any interference on our part.

It would be a better society if we could release our dear ones to the same law we want to apply to others.

Introduce quotas to help Kenyans from poor backgrounds marry into wealth

Statement on the need for relationship quotas by Best Kenya - the only genuine human rights organisation

The introduction of the new quota system that gives pupils from public primary schools a chance to attend national secondary schools is timely. We laud the government for implementing this long overdue policy that will promote a more equal society.

The government should now go a step further to ensure that only students from public secondary schools attend public universities and other public institutions of higher learning. In the same vein, only graduates from public universities should be employed in the public sector. This will complete the whole equality equation.

In the spirit of providing equal opportunities to all Kenyans, the government should also introduce other quotas to bridge the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor.

As the only genuine human rights civil organisation, it has come to our attention that it is not only the education system that needs these quotas. There are many areas in the Kenyan society that require deliberate government intervention if we are to achieve vision 2030 in the next twenty years and the time to act is now.

We all know how important relationships are to the achievement of the above-mentioned vision. In fact without relationships, the Kenyan state as we know it would probably degenerate into an unstable country. Relationships are the basic unit of the Kenyan society and the government must acknowledge the crucial role they play in the stability of our beloved country.

The current situation makes it difficult for poor people to marry into riches and kiss poverty goodbye. Young women who try to win the affections of richer men have been incorrectly labelled gold-diggers; when in reality they are just working towards the personal achievement of vision 2030.

We are, therefore, asking the Minister for Gender to come up with a policy to ensure equal opportunities for all in accessing rich spouses. Bearing in mind that people from poor backgrounds may have difficulties meeting wealthier marriage partners, the Minister should issue a directive to the effect that all rich Kenyans are compelled by law to marry economically disadvantaged citizens. This will go a long way to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor and create a more equal society.

This policy should be implemented in the next four weeks. If the ministry does not heed our call, we will mobilise all citizens who desire a better Kenya in mass protests like those that happened recently in Tunisia until this issue is resolved.

We are also preparing a list of other areas where quotas should be applied to address historic inequalities in this country.


Signed this 17th January 2011

Hakim Mzalendo
Chairman Best Kenya

Crystal ball, what does the new year hold for me?

Crystal balls. Tarot cards. The stars. Psychics.  When I wonder what the future holds I think about these options.

If there is one thing I sometimes feel I could do without, it is the disarming feeling of uncertainty at the start of the year. Not knowing what the future holds can cause anxiety for those who are not fond of surprises, pleasant or otherwise.

When I was younger one of my schoolmates claimed she could read palms and tell the number of children one would have and their sexes. I remember having my palm read, but I forget the simplistic prediction that was made.

Later another self-proclaimed palm reader, still from school, advertised her services but though I was tempted to have mine read for fun, this second time I opted out.

Pupils may offer to tell the future if only to create an exciting pastime in the humdrum existence of school life. But there are people out there who have made foretelling the future their ultimate purpose in life. They claim to have a gift of deeper-than-normal intuition that enables them to sense things that ordinary beings like myself cannot perceive.

They offer us the gift of peeking into our futures so we can prepare for it the best way we know. And these fortunetellers are not in want of customers: those who are too curious to let the future unfold on its own seek their services.

But even the most skeptical get inquisitive once in a while and the possibility of extrasensory perception entices one to know what lies uncovered in the cloak of darkness ahead.

In retrospect, even though I do not believe in fortunetelling, there are things I wish I had known in advance before they happened.

For instance if I had known that boy would be a jerk I would have stayed away and saved myself from so much pain. And if I had known I would end up on the writer’s bench I would have taken my random scribbling more seriously and slowed down to perfect the skill.

These are just the mild cases that come to mind. But I do not reflect with regret because I turned out okay, perhaps because of rather than in spite of those events.

But there are more serious events that make one think: “If I had known this would happen I would or would not have….” Grisly accidents that end fatally come to mind.

On the other end is the second-guessing that accompanies a missed opportunity that was lying right beneath your nose. All you had to do was to reach out and seize it but you let it pass by. Later when you think about it you wish you had known what a good deal it would be and you would have acted differently.

The unpredictability of life can be unnerving, especially when one thinks of the negative outcomes that could have been avoided, or the opportunities that could have been embraced with foreknowledge.

Yet I find that even when I don’t know what the future holds things still turn out okay. Another consolation is my belief that nothing is set in stone - except self-fulfilling prophecies.

What the cards say lie in store may never come to pass; and if it does, it could be because you believed the cards so much as to let the prediction control you like a puppet and conspire with your thoughts and actions to make the prediction come true. How paralyzing!

For now I am content with playing around with the inaccurate apps on social networking sites, that promise to tell me how my life will turn out, just for the fun of it. But for some reason the result they give me is almost always inconsistent with the type of person that I am.

That is why I am better off experiencing this uncertain life without obstructing forecasts to derail my march to the unknown.