Leap Of Faith

(I really don't want to write this post!-That's what's going through my head. But some things are important. This is important)

"What do you think you will find when you make that leap?">

That was the question that changed my life. It was that simple.I had been battling with the decision for a long time. Everything pointed in that direction but I just couldn't take that step. It's safe on the cliff, you know. It's solid and you can feel the ground beneath your feet. You can tell what is where. You have a choice to sit and ponder or to walk away and forget totally that you hovered on that cliff in the first place! Or....you have a choice to jump.


"What do you think you will find when you make that leap?">

I muttered a bit. I stuttered a lot more. Until the point the question was asked, I had just been seeing darkness. I'm not the biggest risk taker. God knows I prefer a plan I can manage from A to Z. I need to know what will happen next so that I can plan ahead for it. But this was different. I couldn't know what was next. I couldn't even begin to perceive what was next. I had to give up the power I held so closely to my heart. I had to give up my fears. I had to give up everything.


"What do you think you will find?">

This question that had been asked by someone I had only just met. She asked it with such assurance and confidence. Such calm. She wasn't taking my confused musings as an answer. She peered into my eyes. It's like she was seeing my very soul. She needed to see what I saw. What I imagined life would be like when I let go. When I stopped planning ahead. When I stopped "interviewing" everyone and "comparing" notes. She needed me to see it. To see what it was like over the cliff. Away from personally imposed comforts. I fell silent.

"What do you see?"

I had bunjee jumped before. I had done stuff that required some level of faith. What did they say? Fear drives away all faith. Now all I felt was fear. Could I jump and not look back? Would I crush underneath the weight of my mistrust?


"What?"

Then I finally started seeing something. On that beautiful day in the backyard eating chocolate cake. I actually started to see something. Full flight. Faith didn't mean holding onto ropes or pacing by the edge. The edge is just as scary as the jump. Faith means jumping and knowing you will fly. Knowing you won't crash and burn. Knowing that that scary pit will never see your feet.


"What did I see?"

I finally saw full flight!

And that's what I told her. So she smiled. And that's when I eventually told HIM! That he gives me full flight.

Number8 - Flush It

Some people amaze me by the way they talk,their calm demeanor, their general talent. Its like it oozes out of their very being. Their very souls. Number 8 is one of these people.I have bumped into him severally. Highly doubt he can remember me though. So today I will not write anything about me.Just have a listen to an amazingly talented soul.



Have an amazing Friday! :)

The Plight Of A Young Kenyan Girl

The date: Sometime end month.
The time: Late in the evening.
The Place: It could be anywhere really.

So there I am, calculator in one hand, a plan on the other, a few bank statements lying around and a perturbed expression on my face to boot. That was me budgeting for my month.What I should cut back, what I should keep, clothes I should sell and whether I should start selling my mother's old newspapers to the butcher (they are just so many). I made a few decisions. I came out of school already in debt. And the more I worked, the more debt I seemed to be collecting. I feel like your every day debt collector....#sigh!

The salary was about to come in. Loans and debts had to be cleared.I had just been slapped with the impossible;A debt I just didn't know I had(there goes my merry-go-round money-the handbag will have to wait!)Suddenly, it dawned on me like it does every end month: I might not make it next month... I do make it month after month however. With the skin of my teeth but somehow, I make it.

They say more money more problems....Ha! when I'm sitted in the dimming lights making a budget that won't just fit into place....more money has never sounded so good. A girl after all has needs. Like food, shelter and shopping. Especially shopping. So for a few minutes, I fumbled at what to do. I needed to get into that utopia called, Financial Freedom. I keep hearing it on TV, why did I seem like such a con game? Here are a few options that I have come up with to solve my ever present broke-ness:

1)I have cut back on expenses: I have officially stopped buying shoes, tops, shorts, dresses, skirts, cute notebooks, evening hot-dogs on my way home,random road trips to see if God-knows-who is home. etc etc etc. I have cut back on going out, experimenting with drinks that cost more than my daily expenditure, experimenting with food I can't pronounce...just generally anything I wouldn't consider a life threatening decision.

2)Money out means money in: The only time I allow myself to go to the ATM nowadays is to get money to invest somewhere, fuel or basic needs like water on a hot day or credit. Otherwise any money that gets out of that hole in the wall is only if I expect money back.

3) Speaking of that hole in the wall, No loose cash: I walk around nowadays with minimal cash. I call it the emergency fund. I ask myself, If I get robbed today, do I have enough for them to run away without hurting me? So if that week, I figure my "robber's budget" is 200 bob then that is as much as I am allowing into my wallet over and above food and fuel. Anything else is just a temptation to impulse buy things I don't need.

4)I moved banks: This was more out of circumstance but as soon as I did it, I knew I had made the right choice.Being a "mwananichi" I banked in a "mwananichi" bank.I was assaulted by ATM after bank after ATM. Anywhere I needed it, I got it. Once I booked shoes at Toi market, ran to the ATM, removed my last remaining cash and almost had to walk home. Now my main account is in a bank with facilities so far away, every time I want anything, I just turn and roll over in bed. Only an emergency can get me traveling across town to withdraw money. Ever since I opened the account, my ATM card is yet to meet with the hole in the wall.

5) Look for bargains...everywhere: If I can get it cheaper somewhere else, I will find someone going in that direction and get it. This habit I seemed to have developed of buying at first sight had to die. And die fast.So now, I google, walk around, consult, count shillings and coins and then when I am absolutely sure that it is the very cheapest I can get at a decent quality, I reluctantly pay.Of course some things cannot be compromised.

6)Lastly, I've joined the "biashara" generation: I used to hate that phrase "Mimi ni mtu wa biashara". I used to think it was sooooo lame and that maybe you were in the drugs business or human trafficking. Now, I am actually laying foundation for my full time "side biashara". I have never been a marketer but circumstances are forcing me to walk around in heat and dust talking to people I'd never have approached in a million years. So now I am "biashara" generation. I have business to run after 5 o'clock to support both my expensive and not-so-expensive habits.

I don't know how well my 5-6 point plan will work. Hopefully it won't turn me into those anti-social people who are always running around looking for money but I am really hoping that at some point when I look back from my "Financial Freedom" perch, I'll think, that was such a wise move.

So help me God!

Another Valentines Post

I know, I know....so cliche right? Hehehe!


But its valentines and asking me not to write a valentine's post is like asking me not to wish you a merry Christmas on Christmas day. I have nothing against this day. In fact it amuses me. The lengths people go to.It's more fun watching the news in the evening. It shifts all focus from the drudgery that life occasionally is. From horses to helicopter to ridiculous red outfits. You have to admit, there's no holiday like Valentines. All that's left is for it to be gazetted!

There used to be this couple in campus who used to celebrate valentines every year without fail. He'd come to the halls (Hall 2 to be precise) in a suit, a red tie and a red handkerchief folded thing in his coat pocket carrying a red rose or teddy bear or some other red gift. AND he would find waiting for him, a girl fully clad in red including hair band. I think he used to take her for breakfast in AICAD(very prestigious at the time especially to our campus pockets). We used to sit at the balcony and make fun of them all morning long. Romeo meets Juliet. Whether Romeo married Juliet, I will never know. But if it was me...I would melt on the spot. Because I was over embarrassed, not overjoyed.

I have never celebrated Valentines. Mostly because the day passes me by the same way July 5th or October 24th does. Or even my birthday. I don't do calendar dates well. period. And worse still public displays of affection. I have been given chocolate on Valentines exactly twice before in my life. Both times I fumbled around for words and eventually mumbled a thank you and then wondered at what to do. Hug? fist bump? peck? giggle? So I safely chose to do nothing. The hurt in their eyes was apparent. But in my defense when you are as confused as I was, doing anything at all becomes very awkward. You either end up with those awkward hugs which have a half handshake stuck between the 2 of you, or that peck that lands on the ear or on the mouth. Trust me, those things only look cute in movies. And I am already awkward enough without help.



So its not that I wouldn't mind an over priced dinner every once in a while or dying roses that cost half my salary (although I would prefer the cheque) but it would depend on whether or not you are comfortable taking a girl out in her gray work pants and flats to a restaurant full of red, short, body revealing dresses(and painful heels). Not to mention the awkwardness you will have to sit through as I fumble with dishes I neither know how to use, eat or pronounce.

But its the thought that counts. And every man has his poison. The same way I wouldn't have expected my campus boyfriend to come trotting to my room n a red tie, I won't stand around expecting my future love to be walking through a rainy February day with half drooping flowers. But if he wishes too, then that's his prerogative. And he shall be greatly rewarded for his efforts and possible embarrassment. I mean, every girl at some point in life wants an over blown romantic gesture. So why not enjoy a public display of humiliation which I can go on to brag about for days.

But before I close my random never ending valentines thoughts of this strangely awkward yet over priced day, here are a few good things about valentines day:

1: Alot of children will be conceived today (I am living testimony!)
2: 69 Billion or so is collected by the tax man from the booming horticulture industry (I said it severally and I shall say it again, stop being selfish and support our economy)
3: In a time of year when tourism numbers are dwindling, restaurants and resorts the town over will have at least one day of booming business.(and at ridiculous prices for that matter!)
4: This is the one day of the year that men have to act utterly strange and slightly emasculated. (Some things just have to be celebrated.More than once, I say)
5: There are just as many or more jokes that crop up from this day as on April Fool's day (Do I hear an Amen from stand up comedians everywhere!)
6: Manipulative women everywhere can drag that elusive "I love you" on this day!(how else can you show that your man is better and more in love than all men.)
7: Last but not least....men can expect to be treated like miniature kings for at least a month, starting tomorrow. Depending on how they play out today (If you did really good... :)

Jeremy visited a florist's shop which showed a large sign that read, 'Say It With Flowers.'

'Wrap up one rose, please' Jeremy demanded of the florist's assistant.

'Only one?' she enquired frowning.

'Ah yes just the one', Jeremy replied. 'I'm a man of very few words.'

10.18 p.m

Yesterday was like any other day.I went to work,I got derailed after work and at a pretty decent hour I started heading towards home. (Yes, its amazing to think you can get derailed from my house far far way!) On my way home, I saw a familiar car parked on the side of the road. I have to admit my reaction time was as slow as it could be.

My brain: Ala! I know that car.
My hand; You really should call and check if they are alright.
My eyes: Aaaaah! 2 texts and a missed call. I really should read that!
My brain: Stupid woman.Call them and find out first if they are fine.

I was bumping my head to techno at the time. I hate techno music by the way. I was just too lazy to change the channel. After a few seconds of tug of war between various body part, I made the call:

Just spotted you at the side of the road.Are you ok!
The car stalled. But he's already here and now we're fine.
Oh!sawasawa. Do you need me to turn back?
I think so. No wait, there are people coming........(random voices on the other side!)
Weeee, wacha jokes! (*stop joking!)


BREATH IN!
I was on low reaction time but I turned and sped back in the direction I had come from. You know how they say that adrenaline is the "fight or flight" hormone...Mine is the "frozen yet highly confused" hormone. But I did will my body to head towards dangerous grounds. They are family. We fight as a group. When I went to slow down where the car was parked, he ran towards me
"Don't stop...go get the cops!"

Do I stop and try and help, do I drive off again, where do I go? All cops seemed miles away. I tried going one way, half way there, I stopped to ask for directions from a cab guy who was slightly drunker and more confused than me. He was clearly not of much help. I thought the other side would be easier so I turned back and sped back then I remembered, Number 1 is much closer to that one so I called tried to sound as calm as possible and talk in one comprehensible language.I talked in all 3.badly.

"I think they are in trouble"
"Serious....where?"
Near Kenol...They told me to get the cops!"
"Where are you?"
"Heading to the cops!"
"I'm on my way!"

As I passed the car for the 3rd time that night, the scene had changed. Many other cars in the area....My brain cursed in several languages.

And for the umpteenth time that night: Should I stop, should I go, Should I call...Is anything I'm going to do going to worsen or improve the situation. I floored the accelerator. I had a task. I needed to do this.Every minute felt like an hour. Every car was moving at snail's pace. I wanted to scream.

I screeched at the cop shop. Katikati ya parking ndio mimi huyo. I ran in...

"I need a cop. I think someone is being robbed"
"Umeona hiyo gari hapo nje madam. Ebu angalia kama iko na mtu!"
My brain: Eh?!
He nonchalantly turns back to his OB. Don't ask how I know it's an OB book.

Out the door like the wind. I knock on the window.A sleepy man tries to roll down his window. Pauses.Thinks that is not going to work. Looks for his lock for a bit. Fumbles. Door finally opens. The OSC.

"Habari ya madam!"
"Kuna mtu ananeed usaidizi" (I will say at this point, my swa is terrible and it gets worse when emotions are high!)
"Wapi."
"Kenol"
"Number ya simu"
"Yangu ama yake"
(He stares at me for a second like I was retarded)
"Nipe namba yake ya simu"
I give it to him.

"Over!over! Kuna mtu amepiga in distress. Nadhani ameshambuliwa"
Crackle!Crackle!
"Number yake ya simu!Over!"
What's with the phone numbers. What was this...A call center! I stifle a scream.
I paced some more.
And then I listened to the drama unroll on the other side. Calls were made on his mulika mwizi while he casually leaned on his car with no window rolling things.It was back and forth for a few minutes. I was walking back and forth for a few minutes. Then it hit me, Number 1 said he'd be here by now...I dial.

"I went to him. We wouldn't be any help with both of us just standing around."
My mind: What is wrong with you....Are you freaking insane.

Two minutes later.The phone rings

"Go home.We're on our way!"

*If something had happened, would "Wacha jokes" have been my last words?
BREATH OUT!

The Mounting Pressure *sigh!

A friend of mine told me once a long, long time ago (in campus :) - that was a while back in my books) that I have 3 things working against me as far as relationships are concerned: I'm intelligent, I'm pretty and I come from a semblance of money. I didn't think much about it then. Mostly because I had a semblance of a boyfriend. But today as I woke up in the morning, it crossed my mind. My love life has shifted from bad-good-great-terrible-terrifying-I have no idea what's going on anymore. I don't know why it crossed my mind today in particular (actually I do-I just won't share) but as I waited for the milk to boil in the kitchen, I wondered if all these things I thought were my strong points were really my greatest weaknesses.


I work in an office full of men and in proper dude fashion, men don't filter their words. "Now you, who will have the guts to date you!" Mind you, we work in the same profession, drive the same cars, hang out in the same places but I am judged on a different standard when it comes to my love-life. I am not feminist enough to cry foul and sometimes I get where they are coming from but honestly I can't change who I am and least of all not for the sake of getting a man.

Another friend, this time female,announced her wedding that's will happen God-willing at the end of the year. She said "I knew it was him when I met him". I almost called her later to ask if she had seen him in a dream or it had been revealed to her with miraculous writings on the wall. Was the tingling in her fingers different from the other bunch of misfits she had dated before? What was so different about this dude she has known for less than a year. She's not the first one. I've heard this from a variety of people and it amazes me every time. Will I wake up one morning and realise "Woooord, I just dreamt that you're it. Let's do this"

I am afraid to tell my old lady that I'm going for yet another wedding. I can see the disappointment in her eyes. Almost see herself calculating how she should just arrange a marriage for me because I seem quite un-bothered or clearly under trained in the art of bagging a male. I sometimes want to tell her that its not that I am un-bothered, in fact I am plenty bothered.....but if I remember right she told me "Wairimu, women don't chase men. You wait for them to come to you!" but I live in such a far off house, even I sometimes wonder whether it'll just be easier to sleep in the office. However does she expect another person to drag themselves all the way there. There's a guy who dropped me off once and every time he made a turn, he kept saying that he felt like he was getting closer and closer to Limuru. And Limuru is far. Check Google maps if you don't believe me! And that was a good friend who I had to plead and trick into taking me home.Need less to say, he has not been back since. Now we meet at a convinient mid-point!

I am not a misfit in anyway when it comes to boy-girl matters but when you come from a family where your mother's every advice has to do with marriage and husbands, the pressure starts to build up subconsciously. She got married early so in her mind I am almost a decade too late. But much as she wants to pile on the pressure, men are not bought in supermarkets. You don't walk up to an aisle and decide whether you want Colgate or Trident. This is a serious decision and if I go wrong, I'll regret it for the rest of my life.


Without denying obvious truths, the pressure is on. Marriages and babies are happening everywhere. Whether I like it or not. Maybe I have already met "the one" (give me a moment to chuckle!) or maybe he's yet to come. Maybe my destiny involves going around the world warning young girls everywhere on the dangers of not dating early. I don't know. People have relationships that read like a script of a Romantic Comedy, I keep imagining mine will read like something from a script writer who got too carried away with his pen (and maybe smoked a bit in the process)so at the very least it'll be an interesting anecdote for when I am older.


Maybe I should move out (to my mother's horror), maybe I should stay put, maybe I should hang out in different places, maybe I should change crowds, maybe, maybe....the parameters are many and confusing. But as I go out less and less and work more and more, finally the only parameter shall involve the person who is willing to drive through the traffic to the leafy parts of town to see me. And if my mother asks, I'll just tell her, he made the effort to chase me to a place few have ventured....to my mother's house!

The margin principle!

I am not one to preach at people what I learnt in church. Again I repeat; I am not one to …... I think you get the point. But yesterday’s service was different. Maybe it was just me and the day was just going so well, that the sermon just sounded sooooo relevant to me! I think I may have shouted it to a pal as I dropped her off at her digs. And when I say shouted, I do not exaggerate. Her right ear might still be ringing from all the words I was throwing at her at 80 words a minute. So since it was a good day, I am going to share my good day tidings from yesterday. Not all of them; some have slipped my mind (after being told in church to always carry a pen and a notebook, I switched to carrying this small wallet that can barely hold the pen, let alone the notebook-in short, no notes were written)


Back to yesterday. We have been doing a series on –if I’m allowed to paraphrase- The rat race and your work-life balance. Yes, that balance that none of us seem to have anymore. So yesterday was the last of that series. Living Marginless Lives. According to research, most probably by some people who wear slippers in California, human beings have the tendency to overestimate their schedule by at least 20%. They also have a tendency to underestimate the time taken to do any number of tasks by 30 %. What does this mean? You may wonder. It means: An average human beings, thinks he has superpowers and as such not only has more tasks than he can handle on any given day, he also assumes that all tasks shall run smoothly and in the shortest time possible and of course seamlessly fit into the next task. Thus you end up working overtime, running late and generally becoming overworked and stretched beyond your normal limit. So here are some of the margins we were asked to put in your life:


1. Scheduling Margin:

If you work in any business whatsoever, schedules are as important as the air we breathe. Schedules make sure that things run on time and people are met at the appointed times. The little wisdom I picked up yesterday taught me that, it is important to have schedules that allow you breathing room. Say 30 minutes between meetings just so that you can prepare, unwind, jot down minutes from the last one or even fight through traffic. We are even supposed to schedule work and deadlines in the same way. Try not to give in to unrealistic deadlines. Give yourself lee way of a few hours or even a day if you can….you know for just in case the comp crushes or if you are in a profession like mine…time for the client to change his mind for the 58th time. Of course in an ideal situation that he presented to us, we are supposed to have schedules on only 4 days a week. On the 5th day, you handle your overflows i.e. unscheduled meetings, unfinished deadlines, report writing, meeting with the taxman…such things (In my mind I wondered, what of us who work Saturdays? What happens to us?)


2. Financial Margin:

This one was rough for someone like me. I have absolutely no margins financially. Do I save? Yes, so that I can buy stuff that is not even important…like shoes. Do I have a fall back plan incase, life slaps me with uncertain unknowns…I am sure I can push for a few days maybe a week even but after that, I’m a sitting duck. As much as our lives seem to demand the world of us, we are not meant live beyond our means, which translates to something like 60% of our monthly income. Talk to any financial advisor. He may not walk the talk but it is the mantra he shall preach. The other 40% of the income should go into tithe(eternal retirement fund), savings, retirement package and emergency fund in equal measure. It is a good principle I think. It is not necessary to have an expensive car or live in an expensive apartment if after all the payments are done, you end up with barely enough to eat.

Plan for 8 days a week instead of the 7. That way if something happens, you have an extra day of funding- Pastor Oscar.Ecc 11:2)


3. Emotional Margin:

This one was hard for me to understand. But I shall write it anyway. No one knows what will happen tomorrow to cause you trauma. A death, nervous breakdown, a disease. Things happen and occasionally, life throws you a curve ball or just beats you in the face with a bat. That is where your emotional margins come in. The relationships you have been building over the years. With your employers, your employees, your friends, your community. You may not realize it but they are your support system .If you have been placing your emotional investment in the right people, you create an emotional margin; A gap that those around you can fill in case of disaster.

4. Physical Margin:

This is an all important margin for everyone. We tend to push our bodies to the edge of the cliff. We eat badly because we have no time to cook. We have no time to exercise or we just don't want to. We don't give our bodies time to recuperate from disease before we push it back to heavy work. In case of disease, our bodies find it hard to recover from the stresses applied. We need to put up margins for our bodies to relax, margins to exercise your muscles. Maybe some days, you detox from the heavy drinking, eating and merry making. Just so that kukiumana and your body decides to crush, you can have reserve to fight!


There was another margin that just slipped my mind. Maybe a sign that next time, I should carry a pen and notebook to church. Written evidence to show my boss when he schedules a meeting for me at lunch time or drags me into a meeting at 7.00 in the morning. (Psyche!) But it did make me think….Maybe the reason I seem to have insomnia is because my brain and my body just don’t know how to shut down.

My reflection on our politics.

There are things I don't like to discuss. I don't like to argue about them because I have very strong personal opinions and when I start expressing those opinions, I get emotional and loud. And then I go off topic and cry at a corner(psyche...but I do get loud and emotional).

One of those things is my God. I do not care to argue about Him. He is the reason I am. The only way I would entertain an argument about His existence is if you have done for me even half of what He has done for me. The other thing is my political stand point. I don't even like it being called a political stand point. It is meant, and this is my strong opinion, to be called a leadership stand point.

It would be wrong for me to say that I do not have strong and very negative feelings towards our current crop in parliament. But then it got me thinking yesterday, aren't we the same people who put them there? We can only complain if they forced their way in (and some definitely did) but we stood in line, some of us from 6 in the morning, fighting cold and with unwashed bodies and we voted for the people who are currently embarrassing us in the world's political and economic circles.

But can you blame them? They have been brought up in a society that applauds cops being beaten on the street in broad daylight and complain about hardened criminals being shot. Our society does not care about tomorrow. Our political, social and economic standing is as fickle and shifty as the breeze. We are dictated by hype instead of values. So what do you expect of our leaders? Do we expect them to rise above our society's values and become better than us? We might as well ask a foreigner to come and run our country.

Our society teaches us that it's every man/woman for themselves. We step on everyone along the way to get to the top. We will sell our co-workers souls to get the next promotion. The corporate world has taken to a new level entirely. Reach the top by any means necessary. Steal, kill, destroy and then run a half baked CSR campaign to smooth the waters. We politely call it office politics....

Only in the past century an a half or so has leadership been so equated with politics. We are not raising leaders, we are grooming politicians. And that is why we seem so dissatisfied. We cannot seem to differentiate between a good leader and a good politician.


In my humble opinion, a good leader does what is best for his people and himself in the best possible way and in the shortest time possible. Most CEO's and MD's who run the fortune 500 globally and most Blue Chip companies locally are great leaders. They do little talking and a lot of doing. They promote image and expect everyone else to promote the same image. Leadership by example. The best kind of leadership.

Now, a good politician, is a bit different. He cries when you cry, he throws stones when you throw stones, he screams when you scream and when you have sufficiently served his interests, he switches camps and moves onto the next person. A politician plays victim and uses emotions as his tool of choice. Whether anything useful gets done is besides the point. At the very least, he is entertaining and exciting. At the very worst, he is useless and frustrating. Politics by example. The worst kind.


Now, when we see our leaders being arrested on the streets like common criminals and throwing stones at police, when we have them fighting each other physically in parliament, when we have them trading insults publicly and using hard earned public funds to try and rile up the masses in support of yet another ridiculous notion, then we do not elect leaders, we elect politicians. We stop becoming a well-oiled economic machine, but a pot of idiotic declarations and political weirdness.

The saddest thing is that we keep electing the same disappointing bunch term after term. Our roads get worse and our water never quite reaches the taps and yet come the next election, we go pick the same disappointments and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Shame on you. Shame on our sovereign republic. We are what make people revert back to dictatorship. At least then we cant blame our failings on our own democratic stupidity.

Last week, on the front page of one of the dailies reported how some county's CDF money has been sitting in the bank while people are starving in parts of this country and in places where the roads are just so bad that we can't even reach them with relief food and medication. Has it become so bad that the politicians don't even want to steal that money anymore? That they'd rather watch money rot in the bank than help those most in need? And yet come next election, first thing on the agenda will be how they need to up their salaries. SHAME ON YOU...

It is ridiculous, it is sad and it is embarrassing. Not only our government and our parliament. But it is embarrassing us. As the people who put them there for a second, third, fifth or even tenth time in a row. You know what the scariest thing is though? For me, it is that, even the generation that I am in seems not to be learning. God forbid that we are grooming politicians instead of leaders. The results in the next couple of years will be disastrous at best.


So now, as we head to the next election, I am making an informed political choice. It shall not be based on tribal lines, it shall not be based on second hand information and neither am I basing it on false promises and utter nonsense. It shall purely be based on the PROPER AND INFORMED POLICY PLATFORMS that the aspirants shall stand for. It needs to be about issues that matter and using solutions that are viable and that will work. We need to address the IDPs, we need to address the drought, we need to address the dilapidated agricultural sector, the growth of the financial and technology sector, our education system, energy and electricity, being competitive in the world market.... there is just so much to deal with.


I am making a decision to refuse to vote for the man with the biggest insults and who drives around with the biggest entourage. I refuse to vote for someone who uses our problems to pump up his image. If you have not done anything of note for anyone in need within the last 5 years (even visiting a children's home), then I refuse to vote for you. If the first time I am hearing your name is in the buildup to August 2012, then no, you do not get my vote. If I heard you in the forefront of "No, MPs cannot pay taxes" then Hell No, am I entrusting you with my country. I'm not even going to entrust you with my county.

We need to be very careful. We need to know who and why we vote. Our future highly depends on it. Our children, our jobs, our health, our homes....they depend on how and with whom we entrust with every level of power. From councilor to president. It is time to stop basing our vote on emotions that involve ridiculous notions like "young turks" and "targeted communities" and think critically and logically about who we want to lead us. Kwani tutaomba serikali mpaka siku gani?