God of small mercies

Its a time when its becoming increasingly difficult to accept being an African in Africa. With two grand corrupt men refusing to let go of power whether their people want it or not. one zimbabwean man refusing to even announce the results and another hated Kenya holding on after stealing the vote. the fact that in both cases thousands of their country men are suffering untold miseries does not move either of them an inch. what matters is the here and now! My heart goes to those poor people

However God has not lost his humor side and just last week and this one, we have been treated to the comical results of two music reality show auditions. I love listening to music especially good music. but in those two auditions, it was not the good music i found entertaining. it was the unbelievable confidence that most young and not so young ambitions showed on the TV screens these past days. most simply thought that to be an 'idol' or fame all you have to do is ape the black American artists or accents. words like 'men, i wanaa be and am gonna' were spoken the most number of times per square kilometer in kenyan history. well i dont know whether that made me proud or sad. lakini everything was just so hilarious and the judges didnt help matters either. the mix is great fun. all in all thousands kenyan youth turned up but only 14 got chosen

the staged show however normally disappoints me on one issue , that the songs are mostly western. only a few kenyan songs are sung. like in the last competition, i was looking forward to Tony nyadundo's hit song 'isanda gi hera' after all oliver's song was part of the repertoire so why not also have some local hits?

in the fame audition, there were these two old men from nyeri who had tried their luck in mombasa with no success. they then went straight to nyeri (nyuba ini) to try again their shot at the old 'nadina' song. i almost died laughing.

but that was not the only break i had from the kibaki greed. the other day my friend took me to their 'local joint'. this time not for booze but for lunch. its a popular kiosk where people eat 'african dish'. boy! it was struggle all the way . first to get to the water dripping from a bucket that served as the hand wash tap, then get space in the bench next to one of the tables and then to get to be served, the waiters shout and order people while passing with plates dripping with hot oily soup. i was in morbid fear of the hot delicacies pouring on me any time. space was a luxury and it was their discretion who they serve first.

'weee! , mchele mododo hapa, matumbo ya ugali, chapo mbili supu' etc. those are the waiters orders to the cooks who we could see constantly wiping sweat from their brow. even in these hard times, there are people doing brisk business. my guy was rather pleased with himself and at the end he asked me how i found the place

and it was also the same week when my colleague bought a new Mercedes e-class and drove it straight to Nairobi university. why ? i asked later. to avenge the pain he suffered when he was in second year in the same university some 8 years before. his girlfriend had dumped him for a dude who was spinning a Peugeot 504. he vowed then to make sure in his life he bought a stronger car and also went to Nairobi uni to take someone else's girlfriend. just to show might (its all about power) I asked the colleague how he felt after showcasing his latest toy to those young and clueless girls on the campus and he said he felt really uplifted. the guy who had taken his girlfriend back then had really deflated his ego! does it mean girls only fall in love for the cars? i dont know, i have never been a Nairobi university girl before

but some other guys are looking for a different kind of break. some are coming to our bank to ask for huge loans to buy shares and no, they are not buying safaricom shares. they want to buy other counters at the NSE!