A short break from what I love...

It has been a journey, one that I did not know how it will turn out. Since 18th November 2010, I have posted 74 blogs, an average of 1.5 blogs a week- I cant believe I am such a writing junkie, I thank God for it.  If you blog or write you can identify with me. Thank you for taking time to read the blogs, you have been walking this journey with me unknowingly. I hope, you have enjoyed, been enlightened and even found the grace to excuse some of my sub standard works.

No piece of work is ever good enough. I keep editing my past posts everyday and it is not about being a perfectionist, English is foreign to so I work at it daily like my walk with Christ. I have grown, so sometimes I read a post and ask myself what was going on in my mind when I wrote it, then I forgive myself and write again. I know I will never write as well as I would like to especially where I am the editor as well.

I started out with my name as the blog title, then changed it to Blocks and Sttuts- blocks is my most dominant mode of stammering/stuttering (depends if you are British or American)  while stutts is short for stuttering. Today, I take leave with the blog titled Stuttistics, a corruption of statistics. You see, my creative right side of the brain has gained some muscles too.

I have been using this blog to develop my writing skills as I aspire to be a published author in the near future. One of the things I have noted is that I am scatter brained but I love it. I don't write along the same line, I am a Steve Biko type of 'I write what I want.' If you read my blogs regularly, you will realize that I am a Christian, a backfired anthropologist ( I always blame my teacher who told me in high school that its a bad course so I ended up studying rocks) and a Sociopolitical (whatever that means) conscious man.

I will appreciate if you would take time and give me feedback on how I can improve the blog. You can leave a comment or do it on my facebook wall.  I do not know how long the break will take. I don't want to lie about writers blog, I have some work simmering on Turkana and Rift Valley youth, so I am fine. Do not be afraid to be as blunt as you can be, I will sugar coat  it my way and swallow it. It is time to listen to outsiders as I gossip about Kenyan football for Kenyanstar http://www.kenyanstar.co.ke/ and The People Daily.

I hope to hear from you- and may God bless you.

You are the reason why I write, Thank you and see you soon or rather, you will read about me soon.

The cow named K'ogallo has refused to give us TUZO

This article (edited version) appeared in The People Daily newspaper SportON magazine on Monday 2nd April 2012.

A local daily reported an April fools day prank that Gor had been banned for the rest of the season. It made me to think so hard on the implications on the local game and Gor Mahia fraternity if that was to happen. All the same, there is a new coach at K'ogallo, though It is not an answer to Gor's perenial fan troubles. I believe in sound leadership in our clubs, KPL and FKF, to this end, I have tried to bring out why the K'ogallo cow (where I come from we name cows after people) has refused to produce Tuzo milk.

There is trouble at the K’ogallo stable in as much as the fans may put up a square face. When Brookside Dairies came on board with their TUZO brand to sponsor Gor, fans thought bad times are gone. Money and big money at that can add more problems than solve them depending on how it is utilized.

Gor has been on the news in the recent past and that is good news. Publicity is publicity, good or bad. Good for you to ride on and bad for you to make your way out of it and win people over. As  they plot to go back ‘home’ to City Stadium aka  tok K’omwanda, there is need to go back to the drawing board.

This reminds me of that Tuzo advert of days gone by where a house help comes back to tell her boss that “the cow has refused,” only for her to be shown a packet Tuzo milk. The K’ogallo cow (whatever the species) has refused and Tuzo has done its part. The good thing is that even as the cow has refused, Tuzo has not gone bad, and things can be salvaged.

Everything rises and falls on leadership, and so I will take it up with none other than the ‘learned fellow ‘ Ambrose Rachier. The chairman is the house help here, to be candid to him, his cow has refused. It is one thing to dazzle fans with a full Gor playing kit and another to run a community club. 

The problem started at City Stadium during Gor elections last year when Rachier was elected.

The social media revolution that brought in George Bwana was not enough. It is no good mixing old and new wine. George Bwana has been in the limelight taking it up with Alex ole Magelo, where is his chairman? That is where the buck stops and GB cannot be the secretary and the chair at the same time.

I will take you to a club I love- all the way in Catalunia; FC Barcelona. In the 2003 spring, Barca was facing a worst crisis in its 100 year history. Current President Sandro Rossel told BBC how he received a call from Joan Laporta in 2003 when it had become shameful to call yourself a Barca fan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKJSDCcp6kE :- Barcelona The Inside Story Part 1

Barcelona finished 6^th in the 2002-03 season, 22 points behind winners Real Madird.

Joan wanted to run for Barcelona Presidency, and he wanted Rossel on his team. They assembled a team of trusted friends and won the election on a lie that they had agreed with Manchester United to bring David Beckham to Camp Nou. Every member of his board had to put in about Ksh.100 million as a bond, and the positions attract no salaries.

We all know where Becks went to but that did not bother the new kids on the block. Rossel’s Brazilian connections snatched Ronaldinho from Paris St. Germaine beating Real Madrid and Manchester United to it- speak of poetic justice. The next day Barca launched Ronaldnho’s number 10 jerseys worldwide. The Barca accounts which were asleep in shambles were awakened.

He brought in Frank Rijkaard, a former player but an untested coach in big clubs to take charge. His first months in charge were disastrous, but Laporta stuck with him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zux5qYMH2Us- The inside story part 4.

At one point they were fourteenth but managed to finish 2^nd and play in Europe.  He went ahead to win a UEFA champions League and two La Liga titles. Laporta fought racism at Camp Nou, earning death threats from a section of racist die hard Barca fans. These fans were entitled to free tickets, which Laporta stopped.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_JztX0RVGk- Barcelona Inside Story part 3. 

The rest as they say is history, he left Barca a better club and is credited as the best president in Barca’s history. Rossel took charge to usher in a new era with Pep Guardiola and branded team jerseys. Today, Barcelona is flourishing on and off the pitch. Where does this put Gor Mahia?

Something needs to happen at the helm of K’ogallo. The reason why Gor attracts media attention is because they don’t deserve to be where they are on and off the pitch. I hope the fans and officials feel that it is a shame to be associated with Gor at such a time. If they dont get that inner itching then it will be business as usual.

A club like Gor needs guts, the kind of guts that can stand up to hooligans. The courage that can risk to take Gor to grounds the club has never traversed. I will repeat that I don’t think Ambrose Rachier is the man cut out for the job.

Gor has a history, and I know clubs with rich histories always want to stick to them. Let us take a look at Laporta’s successor, Sandro Rossel. He took over after Laporta had put Unicef on Barca’s first team jersy, another first for Laporta. The club had stayed for over a century without shirt sponsors. Rossel realized that to stay afloat in the uncertain economic times, culture had to give way. It was painful but Qatar Foundation bought a five year rights to Barca’s first team shirts.

Who said Gor must be led by a Luo? What ole Magelo as a Maasai has done in a Leoprads (a Luhya club) is evident that it is time cultures were looked into at Gor. Elly Kalekwa has been reported to say that if he could get Gor fans, the whole world will know of Sofapaka. Then it is time Gor looked deep and hard, ego, bravado and chest thumping never solved anything. 

As things look, the club may be barking up the wrong tree. Zdravko Logarusic, may have taken over as coach, but if the real problem is not looked into, people will go back to square one. Regarding the troublesome fans, what is condoned or rewarded is repeated. A stand like Laporta's is what is needed to end the fan troubles.

Going by the officials and fans reaction, I don’t see anyone who has been touched with the shame of being a Gor fan so far. The cow may have refused on the Rachier committee, but they can stretch their hands to pick a packet of Tuzo- all is not lost. The Laporta-Rossel team was a bunch of businessmen and technocrats, who will be remembered in Catalonia for a long time to come. Take the cue Gor and all the best, you are a BIG CLUB.

Gor fans manifest the Luo's siege mentality

Wikipedia defines siege mentality as a shared feeling of victimization and defensiveness. It is a state of mind where one believes that one is being constantly attacked, oppressed, or isolated and makes one frightened of surrounding people. This can cause a state of being overly fearful leading to defensive attitude.

Another site defines it as a feeling that rest of the world has negative intentions towards one's own society or that one's own society is surrounded by a hostile world. The focus is on "negative intentions" and "the rest of the world". These negative intentions refer to real and imagined desire and motivation of the world to inflict harm or to hurt the society, threatening a society's well being. 

I am a Luo, so I will speak as an analytical insider- especially in the aftermath of Gor and arch rivals AFC Leopards match. This ended with fans taking it out in street fights. I want to say that a majority of Gor fans are Luos, though I know many non-Luos who are die hard Gor fans, and one of them is former TV star Tim Njiru, comedian Churchill and Carol Mutoko among others.

I do not support the acts of hooliganism, but to find solutions to problems, you have to ask yourself hard questions. KPL and FKF should know that what is rewarded or condoned is repeated. As they work to deal with the problem at hand, relevant government agencies should look at long term sustainable solutions. 

Many people have asked why K’ogallo fans react violently but no one has come up with a panacea for it. Growing up as a Luo, there is this bunter of how the Kenyan social system is hell bent to make life difficult for Luos. I grew up under the Moi regime and it was obvious, you could even hear that the government is out to kill football because it is played and managed by Luos.

Looking back many Luo leaders- loyalists and outlaws have been sacrificed by the system in equal measure. So the talk that Luos are rebellious does not hold water for me- we just look for options in a society that has come to see us as rebellious. Robert Ouko just like Tom Mboya before him was a loyalist and they both paid for it with their lives. Senior Private Ochuka and lately Oulu G.P.O may not have been so ‘system friendly’ but they were executed as well.

The Luo child grows knowing that it will be hard for him to get opportunities that are open to other Kenyans. When he grows up and finds himself in a system that is to his perception not fair- he fights for justice. Then the same system labels him a rebel and he lives by it because he knows the system will never acknowledge his abilities.

Take for example the University of Nairobi leadership. It is common knowledge that Luos were and still form the cream of Kenya’s academia. Yet, only until the process of selecting and appointing the Vice Chancellor was done professionally and fairly did a Luo (Prof. George Magoha) get the job. Luos know if they land in a position, they got it because they deserve it so they will take no prisoners with them.

It is this siege mentality that makes Gor fans feel cheated even when the referees’ mistake is in the human error margin. The reaction may be above normal, but that is what you expect from a people ‘under siege.’

This is exactly where Israel is in the Middle East, North Korea in Far East and Albania in the Balkans- these are examples of societies under siege. The mentality can be self instigated by leaders of the said community- one can say that Jaramogi isolated the Luos from Kenyatta regime. North Korea is one such example of leaders isolating a society.

The other cause may be real mistreatment and isolation by part of or all societies around the said community. The Luos reaction to past injustices may have made other communities to dislike and in a way isolate us. This in effect has turned the Luo into an inward looking proud- I can do it on your face regardless of what you think- type of people. It is engrained in us from an early age- to keep our pride at all cost.

I read in the micro-blog social media of people condemning Luos and even saying that they will not vote for Raila because of the behavior of his tribesmen. This may go into making the situation worse. Raila is loved and adored by Luos because he has managed fight and evade the system that has been ‘anti-Luo’ since independence.

Jaramogi may have isolated the Luos and created the siege mentality, Raila has come up as the leader with a solution to it. The Luos will follow Raila simply because they believe he is the only one who is able to beat the unjust system. So, making him president of Kenya is a step towards deflating the Luo’s siege mentality. It will reduce and even eliminate the overreaction to little 'inconsequential injustices.'

Before you condemn someone, walk in his shoes. The Kenyatta and Moi’s regime pork barrel politics made Luo-Nyanza lag behind in development. These injustices breed angry youth and indifferent adult generation. It is this that makes Luos politically united tribe in Kenya, so to divide Luos, just end the siege mentality.

To move forward and solve our social problems we have to walk back in history and find the causes of such anti-social behavior. These problems are a manifestation of deep rooted many times forgotten causes. It is not peculiar to Luos, we have mungiki, chinkororo, FGM, cattle rustling and many others from different communities. This will enable us to come back to the present equipped to strategize for the future.  An angry parent will raise an angry child.

NCIC and Mzalendo Kibunja- you have your work cut out for you.

© March 2012

The Day I threw in the towel on tribalism....

I have been a nationalist from a very young age. I don't know at what point I became politically conscience, by the age of nine- I had taken a campaign poster and pinned it in my room. When my age mates at thirteen idolized Bobby Brown (oh yes) and the likes, I could recite the whole cabinet then. It was all capped by the murder of Robert Ouko. Then the young ambitious man from Arkansas Bill Clinton put a toast to it as I completed primary school.

My time in High School was rather slow politically, but I followed the goldenberg saga like I will be examined in it. I spent this time reading Ngugi wa Thiong'o and other African writers as well. By the time I finished high school, I knew what the problem was, I just did not know what to do about it. Independence had not changed much, not just in Kenya but Africa in general.


It all came out in University when I got into student activism. I got into the student union executive and the hunger to see change in society was up to my neck. I believed that my comrades in this struggle were in it for the conviction that things will change, but no. We got suspended for three years, on readmission I realized people had changed or rather suspension had changed them.


We coined the name jackpot in campus, where proposals would be written approved and funds released all in the name of funding student projects but it would end up in someone's pocket. Another way for paying ourselves for the job done and suffering we had undergone.


Then on completing our studies, I met one of my comrades just before the 2007 elections. I believed him as one man who has the desire to see a better Kenya. "Kenyatta, I don't want to lie to you. I don't like Raila but because everyone is voting for 'their' man, I am voting for Raila." He told me with a new found conviction.


Most of the students who were suspended were Luos, and we all had a problem with Raila. To say the least, one of the reason we were sent home was our association with James Orengo and mageuzi. For my friend to say that as his reason for joining the crux of Raila and ODM campaigns, I gave up on Kenya ever curing the cancer of tribalism. If the young people are getting swallowed it the mire.


Later I realized that having sacrificed 1,000 days for a cause we did not win- liberation fatigue cropped in. We felt that sacrificing for this country is not worth it. This is what has gotten to many people with the hunger for reforms, it is not worth sacrificing for this country.


Yet, for change to come, a generation must be ready to sacrifice for the sake of the next generations. We are busy creating problems for the next generation. We behave as if children will not grow, like they will not make demands soon. Demands that we will not be able to meet. The children in schools currently are preparing for jobs that are non-existent at the moment. That is a disaster waiting to happen.

America is a country that has developed solely on their strength to embrace diversity. This did not come on a silver platter, there are still many white supremacists and social hatred. Freedom, to those who have fought for it know that it is not a destination but a state of mind, a process that must be watched and protected daily.


Somewhere deep down my heart I still believe in the Kenyan dream. Especially after experiencing the 2008 post election violence. I have read a lot on the Rwanda story and I know, genocide did not begin in 1994. Whenever a politician utters ethnic bigotry words, I know a genocidal seed has landed in the soil of someone's heart.


 Every generation has a responsibility, and we must be that generation that set Kenya on the road to prosperity. I am watching this years election closely, because I know it will be a step towards winning or loosing the war on tribalism.


Like the graffiti at City Market wall in the heart of Nairobi says "..the idiots will still vote for me" -knowing very well that I am a corrupt and tribal political leader.


Kenyans- we can change this, all it needs is a few individuals to stand up and say- NO, in truth and in love. The kind of love that breeds righteous anger.

The Luo - Kikuyu divide is more than political

When two bulls fight, the grass feels the heat. The scenario (let me not call it bad blood) between the Luo and Kikuyu in this country is peculiar to Kenya. When these two tribes find a reason to work together, Kenya jumps major huddles- but only for as long as the ‘marriage’ lasts. These two communities can decide to unite and share the presidency between them for long, may be their ‘animosity’ is a blessing in disguise to 'small' tribes.

In my attempt to try and get a solution for Kenya, I have realized that the difference is more than political. It is engrained in the DNA of the two communities; there are many fundamental differences that will have to be bridged before the political difference is solved. I will speak as an outsider though I acknowledge I am a Luo with two names from both communities.

Kikuyus are generally farmers while Luos are originally cattle keepers. The two cultures have followed the two tribes to the city and into the diaspora. The Kikuyus like all farmers are patient- they will invest (plant) and wait for the season of harvesting. The Luos who are pastoralists turned fishermen, are used to going to the cattle shed or the lake, fish out what is available and feast for the day.

The Kikuyu are used to seasons of crop failure so they will save for the dry season. The Luo on the other hand are used to living one day at a time. Cattle is slaughtered, dried for preservation or eaten fresh as a community. They will go fishing everyday and not miss what to eat, the lake is a constant. Now you know why Kikuyus are good investors and Luos good spenders.

Politically, when Kikuyus get into positions of power they fence it off like all farmers. They slot their henchmen in vital positions and begin the process of cultivating and harvesting. The pastoralists like Moi regime would graze down a government project then move in search of greener pastures to feed on again. Fishermen would put in the structures (nets) and exploit the catch day in and wait for retirement.

Another main difference is that Luos are patriarchal while Kikuyus are matriarchal. This is evident from the fact that many women MPs to ever grace the august house are from the Kikuyu community. To the Kikuyu, the children belong to the mother, while to the Luos the children are called by their father’s name. If Barack Obama was a Kikuyu, he would not care about his ancestral roots.

The other factor is how to attain results. While Luo children are raised to love excellence and guard their reputation, Kikuyu bring up their children with the balance sheet in mind. It does not matter how you earn your money- rich people are respected. Watch a Luo and a Kikuyu carpenter, the Luo would rather make flashy furniture and keep it for months- enjoying the glamour. The Kikuyu will make average pieces and sell many at a reasonable price.

The food Luos eat must be prepared to a certain standard. If someone cooks food that does not match the ‘lifestyle’ it will be called kikuyu food. Kikuyus on the other hand do not mind the quality; they will mix the food, boil and serve. They would rather spend time looking for money than eating good food.

I always tell people that former MP Njenga Karume should thank God he was not born a Luo, he would never have seen the inside of parliament. Luos will respect a poor professor and even elect him to parliament at the expense of a wealthy opponent. Education matters a lot, not just attaining it but even where you get it matters. So a Maseno University graduate will not ‘speak’ where a University of Nairobi graduate is.

Luos abhor blood- it takes a Luo more than guts to murder someone in cold blood. On the flip side, they are ruthless with people who do not tow the ‘upright’ social order. The thieves and conmen of Kisumu will never live in peace when identified. The people will come and get a thief from his mother’s house if they have to. On the flip side, Kikuyus will defend their kith and kin as long as it was a matter of earning some money. I have a hunch that if Mungiki was a Luo outfit it would have been annihilated, not by the state but the community.

Raila’s son Fidel in an interview with Kwach and Angwenyi on Easy FM said that his grandfather’s parting shot to them was “do not bring down my name.” To the Luo, the name matters a lot, reputation is guarded at all costs unlike the Kikuyu’s. Then there is the engrained socialism/capitalism divide. Urbanization has thrown the Luo socialism into an imbalance. The Kikuyu had their socialism broken down by colonial displacements and they adopted capitalism.

There has been a tremendous increase in Luo-Kikuyu intermarriages recently. I believe this will form a middle ground where the two communities can bridge their differences. The political differences stem from an inbuilt engrained culture. Whenever these marriages work you see a very stable and developed home. Even when it is a business partnership, the cultural mix just takes the venture to great heights. Luos are good managers while Kikuyus are risk takers.

The Raila-Kibaki generation will not sort it, but the younger generation can find a reason to agree to disagree. Like in a marriage, you accept your spouse at their best and worst. Unlike poles attract, and each has traits the other lacks but needs. The problem is the supremacy ego between the two- it must be sorted soon if we are to achieve Vision 2030.

I urge the government and the ministry of education in particular to work out a formula of sorting this problem. Nyanza and Central can exchange students and the students who agree to take up the placements be put on scholarships. This interaction may give rise to a different generation of Kikuyus and Luos which will be good for Kenya.

© Feb 15^th 2012

Raila or Uhuru, there is nothing to choose between the two!

There is nothing to choose between Raila and Uhuru

This is an election year and looking at the situation, all bets are off. We have to cross the elections river again even when wahenga said you cannot cross the same river twice. The river may be different but the water flowing in it has gone round the hydrological cycle into the same political river valley.

 The lie of the land of Kenya is the over rated politics and politicians. This obsession is good and bad, good for checks and balances on the political class and bad as it takes social capital from other equally important aspects of Kenya. Compounded with our love for drama, we tend to fall for political actors and comedians.

Looking at two leaders- Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta who seem to have a vice grip on the psyche of their communities. People are shocked at Raila’s hold on the Luo, but recently Uhuru has risen to almost the same level in the Kikuyu nation. I have picked these two leaders because they come from two ‘politically hostile’ communities.

Let us look at Raila- I don’t buy the talk that he has never been in government that is why he has never helped Luos. His father built Nyanza General Hospital through his personal connections with Russians. Tom Mboya had the student airlifting programme from his connections with the West (Kennedy's to be specific). Raila has connections all over the world yet he has never used them to uplift the welfare of Luos. I do not expect much from his presidency for his fanatical Luos.

Uhuru is one of the wealthiest men in Africa. His sister Christina said that he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth- then it must be a golden one. His family owns large tracts of land almost the size of Nyanza Province. The people in IDP camps who believe in his leadership are from his community. He can work out a formula for settling this people in parts of the land and get returns from them or the government. 

The Luo lag behind in development mainly because of the ignored girl child and un-empowered women folk. There is no rallying call from Raila to change this trend, yet men circumcised themselves because ‘baba’ said. Imagine if he rallied Luos behind a social development agenda like saving and investing in a community bank? HIV/AIDS is causing havoc to the Luo community, yet the leaders who must abide by Raila’s word care less.

Romour has linked Uhuru to Mungiki since 2002; these are young jobless men in need of a source of income. Imagine Uhuru giving them some land and/or loans for them to raise dairy cows for milk supply to his Brookside Dairies? What idea or initiative has he ever initiated to solve the Mungiki problem in Central Kenya?  Alcohol is breaking down the social fabric in Central Kenya yet the leader(s) are more concerned about votes than the voters.

I have reasons to believe that the common Luo and Kikuyu nationals have put their eggs in baskets that will not give them commensurate returns. These leaders can do a lot for their poor followers; we saw what Raphael Tuju did as a mere minister and what Peter Kenneth has done with CDF. The problem is Kenyans will always rally behind people who take them for a ride. Uhuru and Raila are good politicians but average leaders and managers. The healthiest meal doesn’t appeal to the eye while the best king sits far from the throne.

They are our leaders for this season- we can go ahead and vote for them. Never the less they are not worth killing someone or dying for. They are just men with strengths and weaknesses, other leaders will still rise to take over from them and even do better.

Politics is about people’s perceptions, maybe I expect too much (great expectations may give birth to frustrations) or I am a wet blanket. I just ask hard questions, because we have to make extra ordinary decisions if we expect extra ordinary results.

 Lest we complain tomorrow, yet we have a chance today. People will still get the leaders they deserve.

Luos and Luhyas must learn to 'bury' the living...

I admire Kikuyus for their pragmatism when it comes to sending off their kith and kin. It is very different from my two real and acquired communities- Luos and Luhyas. I am a keen person and I like digging up the roots (not Phillip Ochieng's root words) of social behaviour.  

I have come up with a mantra to my family- I will bury people when they are still alive. This is a direct translation of a Kiswahili saying nizike ningali hai- meaning be good to me when I am still alive. This is a one man attempt to beat the obsession with burials.

We all remember the S.M. Otieno saga that led to the court defining that a Luo man has a house in Nairobi and a home in Nyanza. The renowned lawyer had to be buried in Nyalgunga against his widows wishes. On a good note, I have noticed an increase in the number of Luos and Luhyas laid to rest at Langata cemetery. This is a sign that the times have caught up with us because we had refused to catch up.

I like asking hard questions, in my attempt to dig out the root of this; I took a good look at my Kikuyu friends. They love eating meat so every holiday and a good weekend is a goat eating session. They meet and share in good times; they celebrate successes and console each other in time. Family get together is common where people meet and know each other.

In the contrary, when you cross the Rift Valley to the West, it is only at funerals that an animal bigger than a chicken will be slaughtered. Relatives do not meet as often and funerals end up as family re-unions. This makes funerals more than just a send off for a loved one. The food is an avenue for catching up, and the tea a refreshment.

I do not have a problem with those who can afford. My heart goes out to the humble families who have to borrow or sell property in order to buy a mandatory cow to slaughter. The bereaved are then left with a double loss of a loved one and debt to boot. To add to that some mourners still go away complaining how they were not catered for well.

Culture and customs have a context which they operate in. Like a piece of statute, they have a spirit and a letter. I will take the letter to be the social context that supported such customs and the spirit the social good it was meant to enhance. Every home owned cattle back then- it was a measure and store of value. People and communities had large tracts of land for grazing as well.

Unlike today where land is scarce hence people have reduced the number of cattle they keep. With reduced supply, the demand has risen with the price. The social support system that existed is no more, and resources have also diminished over time.

The other factor is fear of witchcraft.  People tend to offer sacrifices of animals when transferring curses. This makes funeral slaughtered animals safe as the reason for its death is known. If you doubt, go back to your village and slaughter a goat, very few people will dare eat it.

I write this as a way of asking the Western folks to reconsider spending huge amounts of money on the dead. A decent burial today costs an average of KSH. 500,000 (approx $65,000) - if you have to transport the body from Nairobi. We can minimize on this and use the balance to ‘bury’ the living.

It is not that I have no respect for the dead but there is life after the burial ceremony. The current economic hardships also dictate that we approach financial matters with prudence.

© Feb 2011