Handle with compassion: The enemy is also a child of God

President Mwai Kĩbakĩ, I believe when he was still a dashing minister before the rigors of higher office started wiping hair from his head, was quoted to have said that every market place has a mad person. While not scientifically proven, I want to think he was right. Even my small town in the Rift Valley, perched at 6161 feet above the sea level, when I was growing up it had a mad person. Actually a mad woman. At times we used to feel that she was not mad, because she used to arrive at the market at 11:00 am each day, but Sunday, even though she did not have a watch. But we also thought she was mad because she never used to bathe, and would still come to the market even when it would be raining.

We knew her by her Christian name only, Rakeri (Rachel - although that is not her real name). As children, we were afraid of her, even though she was never known to be violent. She would sing the whole day while collecting sticks and pieces of wood that she would later take home to use for firewood. Women vendors at the market used to give her food, and so she was never hungry. Apart from fearing her, we also hated her because women vendors would give her ripe sweet bananas, but they never gave us any. One day we got fed up, and one of my companions, who I will call Wakaba (also not real name) said he was going to teach Rakeri a lesson, and that we would miss her for a few days if not weeks, and we might be given bananas meant for her.

The plan was simple. Since one could set their watch by the time Rakeri arrived at the market, Wakaba plotted to have nails planted in soft soil in the ground with their sharp ends facing up on the path she used. He got about six nails, which he buried in the ground disguised the scene with the soft soil, and he ran home expecting to hear screams coming from a woman with paining foot or feet since she never wore shoes. He was right, because five minutes before the hour of 11:00 in the morning, he heard very loud screams. But instead of celebrating, he started sweating and nearly collapsed. It was his grandmother screaming. To make the matters worse, she was yelling his name.

He sheepishly walked to where his grandmother was groaning with pain as one of the nails had literally gone through her foot, and he asked her in dismay: "What business brought you here Cũcũ?" The old woman did not take that lying down: "Excuse me young man, are you suggesting that I should not use this path, or are you saying you are the one who planted the nails? They do not have any rust." Wakaba's sight became blurred. A lump in his throat threatened to suffocate him. His insides became jelly, and he had to rush to the toilet to take care of the sudden episode of endesha (diarrhea), while his grandmother was screaming at the top of her voice, this time not because of pain from the nail, but the pain of seeing her grandson running away from her.

Before he bolted the toilet door, he asked me to take some paraffin to his grandmother to use as a disinfectant, as we used to do in those days. I took some paraffin and an old piece of cloth. She had pulled out the nail, and the bleeding had stopped. I wet the piece of cloth with paraffin and she cleaned the punctured skin and tied the wound. As that was happening, Rakeri walked past singing that God is good, and did not even notice us. I could not disagree with her. He was so good to her that she missed danger that was meant for her.

In the West Indies, West Indians, just like their relatives in Africa have very many sayings. They will not finish any short talk without invoking one of them. A popular one is that when you dig a hole (for someone), dig two. They go on to expound and say that when you wish someone bad luck, the same will befall you. The Bible has a similar saying, only that it does not mention two holes. It says that when you dig a hole (for someone) you will fall into it (Psalm 7:15). If I must pick the lesser evil, I would rather go for the Bible option. Look at it this way, if I dig two holes (one meant for me) and the other one for Jobjow, then the two of us will get in and there will be no one to assist us. But if I dig one and instead of Jobjow falling into it, I end up inside there, I will call him and he will rescue me. Of course I will tell him that I had dug the hole to trap a buffalo. Being the good guy he is, Jobjow won't even waste a minute trying to figure out that buffalos do not live in towns. He might even give me money to send me to a hospital for medical checkup.

Before I let you go, please take time and understand that you could dig as many holes as it may please you, but you can only succeed in falling in one – you won't be able to come out of that one to fall in the next. The reason is because God also loves the other guy. But He does not hate you. You are the one who is in the business of disobeying Him by hating the people He loves.

With a name like Peace, it then comes as no surprise when she exhorts us to pray for our enemies. Evangelist Peace Mulu has a video under the title Ombea Adui Yako in which she has put on the table very serious issues that we take for granted. When people make it their business to talk evil about you, plotting against you and deciding what will happen to you, they are then not the friends you need. Peace Mulu has good counsel for you – pray for them. God has many good things in store for you, and she advises that no amount of badmouthing (including going to wagangas) will help them as God will continue dishing out blessings to you without stopping.



The song's refrain is however not very encouraging. She says that you should pray for your enemies to live long enough for them to see God's blessings coming your way. There is nothing wrong with that. But Evangelist Peace should preach what God commands us to do and that is to pray for our enemies for them to turn from their bad ways and join us. Her lyrics do not address to that. She simply requests that they live long, not to be saved, but to see how you have been blessed. That can be counterproductive in our efforts to win more souls for the Lord as the enemy will feel that God does not love him. We might send the wrong signal to our enemies.

To make music videos more appealing, all manner of footage is added. Some of it is relevant to the song's message and some leaves the viewer rather puzzled. The Masai of Kenya and Tanzania have been known to be a very aggressive people. So much so that we misunderstand them. I know that they are aggressive to lions that kill their cattle. It is lions that fear the Masai. I also know that they defend their animals so much that they cannot stand cattle rustlers. If you are not a cattle rustler, you have no reason to fear a Masai, as they are some of the most respectful people in the world. My sister is married to a cool Masai man, who smiles even to strangers, so much so that a number of people have asked if there is anything wrong with him. The footage of Masai morans wielding their rungus in Peace Mulu's video might make some people assume that they are the enemies she is singing about. But please note that I have not said that is what she intended. While Peace Mulu's song has an appealing melody and its message is noble, its presentation could catch some viewers on the wrong footing. We give her three of our green stars for her effort.

After unceasing prayers the Kenyan train is back in motion

It is a well known fact that boys play hard, sometimes with consequences that leave entire communities awestruck. This brings back to memory my glorious school days in the peaceful Rift Valley where I grew up in a town perched up 6161 feet above the sea level. Yet they said I lived in a valley. Mbũgua (no relation to Jobjow) and Madaka were two boys who although in the same class with us, were much older. One afternoon, when all others were busy with extra-curriculum activities, the two went by the railway line that goes to Uganda. Before long a goods train on its way to Uganda stopped where it never was supposed to stop. We saw Mbũgua and Madaka scampering for cover and hiding in a class that was not even theirs.

Just like the train, the entire school came to a standstill. We saw a man running into the school compound asking to be shown the headmaster's office. He did not need to be shown as the headmaster came out to find out what was happening. The man said that he was the train driver and that he had been stoned by two schoolboys. The headmaster demanded to know who the boys were, but most of us who had seen Mbũgua and Madaka running away from the railway line said nothing. However, the innocent boys and girls of standard two, in whose class the two boys had taken shelter, reported that it was Mbũgua and Madaka who had done it and that they were hiding in the classroom.

Soon the train moved off, and the two boys were whisked to the local police station. They were immediately transferred to Nakuru as my home town did not have Railway Police who were supposed to handle such an issue. Three days later they were arraigned in a court where they faced a mean looking magistrate. Their parents came along. The train driver who had allegedly been stoned was also present. A wire-thin policeman, whose uniform was threatening to fall off his body, was prosecuting. He told the magistrate that the boys had thrown a huge stone that hit the driver of a goods train and that the driver, in a lot of pain, had to stop the train at an unscheduled place. He showed the court a large stone that must have been two pounds or thereabouts. He said that the boys had committed a crime aimed at causing grievous harm on the train driver. He actually called it attempted murder.

When the boys were called to defend themselves, Madaka told the magistrate that they were by the railway line trying to shoot down some meek birds we called olulu, using a catapult and tiny stones. He said that there was no way such a huge stone could have been thrown by use of a small catapult. He also pointed out that there was no sign of injury on the train driver's face. He then pulled out the handmade catapult from his hind pocket and showed it to the magistrate, who looked at the boy and shook his head furiously. From the way he behaved, everyone in the courtroom thought the boys were going to face very long jail sentences. But when he opened his mouth, the courtroom froze. He gave the train driver a tongue lashing for wasting the court's time, and the resources of East African Railways and Harbours for having stopped a goods train in the bush to harass boys who were playing legitimate and harmless games.

While everyone applauded the magistrate after he ordered the train driver to make sure that in future his train only stopped at railway stations, the father to one of the boys did not take it very kindly. I will not say which father because I do not want to embarrass that particular boy. He stood and shouted at the magistrate: "Wee Jaji, funga huyu mtoto wangu. Yeye anapigaga mama yake" (You Judge, jail my son. He beats his mother). Police officers quickly frog marched the shouting man out, with his feet barely touching the ground. The mother of the boy stood and shouted "Shetani ashindwe!" (Down with the devil). Instead of the policemen taking her out, they held her and told the magistrate that she had called them devils. The magistrate, who had witnessed what transpired, reprimanded the policemen by telling them that the woman was right because the devil who had tried to use the train driver to have her son go to jail for an offence he had not committed had been defeated.

The best news coming out of Kenya is that over the weekend President Mwai Kĩbakĩ and Opposition leader Raila Odinga had finally agreed on the composition of a Grand Coalition where he named Odinga the Prime Minister. It was further good tidings for Kenyans when Prime Minister Odinga went to his official office on Monday (April 14) where, according to a report carried by the Daily Nation, he took his new office with a promise to ensure that the country got back to its feet following the destruction caused by the post-election violence. The cherished Kenyan train, which had been running seamlessly for over 40 years, had been forced to stop at an unscheduled stop. This act that had left hundreds of our country men dead and thousands displaced. Good sense has prevailed and the Prime Minister has promised that no amount of intimidation would stop the Kenyan train. Shetani ameshidwa!

Ev. Nathaniel Nyagol of King's Ministers Melodies in Michigan is a Kenyan who decided to leave the comfort of his adopted home in the US to return to a burning Kenya to ensure that the Kenyan train did not stop for too long. For his deep love of mother country, he ministered by song, as he has done in the past (he is better known for his Gospel track "Piny Orumo" The world is getting finished) and produced a new thought provoking song, Mungu Ongoza Kenya (God Lead Kenya).



In this song, whose video Jobjow has managed to upload on the Angaza website, Ev. Nyagol (just like the magistrate above) is telling Kenyans that their train had stopped where it was not supposed to stop and hence wasting a country's most valuable resource – its people.

The patriot he is, his song opens with a flag of Kenya flaunting in the wind followed by the clips of wildlife, which has put Kenya on the world map, and of great vistas of the country. When he appears 100% he has the backdrop of the towering Kenyatta International Conference Centre. The melody is slow and reassuring while the lyrics are prayerful. He prays for our politicians to look to God the Creator citing that in unity the people would draw the strength needed to build the country. He calls for love among all the Kenyans.

He is gracefully joined by Mrs Nyagol in rendering this skillfully written piece. The footage in the video is spontaneous in nature and he cannot be accused of shying away from things that happened on the ground. There is the powerful and telling footage of Nyagol with displaced people, crying with them and playing with their children. He implores the country's leaders to take action and avoid empty words. The video was put together before the Grand Coalition was agreed upon and I would not be surprised if Kĩbakĩ and Raila had watched it before coming out with the much awaited agreement when they met at the Sagana State Lodge for the final meeting. For having spurred our leaders into putting the Kenyan train back in motion, Ev. Nathaniel Nyagol deserves full marks and takes home five of our green stars.

God does not misspeak!

There happened to be this poor guy, whose name I will not mention because I never got to know it. His wife heavy with their first child fell sick, and the man did not have money to hire a taxi to take her to the hospital because in her condition she could not ride in a matatu. It was in the 1970s. He went to his boss and explained the case. His kind boss wrote him a cheque of Shs.150. The man looked at the cheque and the only words he must have seen written on it (other than the amount) were 'bank' and Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi.

He walked from the Industrial Area, over the Railway Bridge near Kenya Polytechnic and soon found himself on Kenyatta Avenue. He saw a bank and entered. There were many people in the queue and he had to wait for almost 45 minutes before he could be served. But on presenting the cheque, and his kipande to prove that he was the real owner of the cheque, the young cashier said that he was in the wrong bank (Barclays), and pointing across the street, she told him: "You see that bank across the road? That is where you will get paid." He looked in the direction she had pointed, and he saw Kenya Commercial Bank.

Thanking the cashier profusely, he walked towards the right bank, and the next thing everybody in the bank heard was a very loud bang as the man walked into those glass windows that stretch from the floor to the ceiling. Momentarily people thought there was a bank robbery and some even dived for cover. The man fell heavily and it took the security man to pull him up and showed him the door. The security guard later told the manager that those 'glass walls' would kill people because they used to be cleaned daily making them appear as if there were not there, but they were there (not borrowing from Alex Haley's Roots). The following week the manager put some flower boxes by those glass windows, to avoid further mishaps.

Our man got paid at Kenya Commercial, but initially he had thought the girl at Barclays had misspoken or that he was seeing a mirage, where money was there, yet it was not there when he needed it. I recently suffered a similar fate when I thought I had clinched a publishing deal. It coincided with the Valentines' Day and I thought it was my best ever gift, after I had complained I felt like a man in a desert where I kept on seeing mirages instead of water. The man making offer told me not to worry as it was in the desert that the boy Ishmael and his mother Hagar saw a well. The attached message said: "His (God's) ways are not our ways". That brightened my day, but soon after finding the well, and as I rushed to drink from it, I hit an imaginary glass barrier around the well with a thunderous bang such that my head felt like it had been detached from the shoulders. I was warned: "Hold your horses. Not yet!" He had misspoken.

That soured my life until last week Friday which happened to be my birthday, when I received two personal birthday wishes, and two on-line birthday wishes from persons I do not know. (In a world of over six billion human beings, I could only be recognised by four - 4 - people!) Of the personal birthday wishes, the first came from a lady who I will not comprise her integrity by mentioning her name because apart from being a senior manager in one of the most successful financial institutions in the entire Eastern Caribbean, she is also a pastor in her church. Here is a person, who though not close to me, allowed herself to be used by God as a vessel to pass on His blessings to me. The next person was Jobjow, who apart from sending me an e-card in the form of an animated cartoon; he also sent me a package of goodies. I won't elaborate, so as to save him from being overwhelmed by fan mail from persons wanting him to know their birthdates. Jobjow you truly are a blessing – endelea hivyo hivyo.

A few days before my birthday, I had checked on the new videos Jobjow had posted, and lo and behold, one literally swept me off the floor, both by its melody and lyrics. Hagari (Hagar) by Sarah Mwangi.

This is a song with words of hope; lyrics that tell you God sees your suffering and never fails to deliver on His promises. God heard the cries of the man whose wife was sick. He heard the cries of Hagar's son in the desert. He heard my cries after I could not drink from a well I had been told about. He hears the cries of all of us any time we cry upon Him. We only fail to get His blessings because we never cry out for them. Sarah Mwangi's Hagari has pacified me for the pain I experienced. Jobjow could not have posted the video at a better time.

Let me not be carried away by my own joy. I am aware that I had taken an unauthorized sabbatical from my duties, but Jobjow being the good man he is, has accepted me back on the job, without any conditions attached. Here I am reviewing some of the songs he has posted on the Angaza Family Radio's website. There are so many new and good songs that I did not know where to start, until Sarah Mwangi's Hagari hit me like the force of angels coming to take us to our heavenly abode. I still do not know where (and how) Jobjow gets these videos. The only thing I will say is that he gets some of the best our Gospel artists are able to churn out.

Hagari is a title that does not explicitly point out to the greatness of the song. If I were Sarah Mwangi's song writer, I would have gone for a more potent and eye-catching title; one that would tell anyone seeing it that she is about to preach the best God has in store for us. I do not need to suggest any now because the video is already out. Listening to its melody, it tells me that she has been able to fuse two genres to bring out one of the most powerful contemporary Gospel songs to have come out of Kenya. Those who are well versed with Kikuyu genres will without doubt not miss the classic mũthĩrĩgũ beats in the song. She sways in calculated synchronisation to the beats. So do the choreographed backups by the young dancers. They could have, however, polished their act. She then introduces the keyboard, whose powerful and enchanting rhythm brings in the next genre that has been the living pillar with our East African contemporary Gospel artists.

While the language of music is universal, singing in Kikuyu does not stop anyone from grasping Sarah Mwangi's message. It is crystal clear leaving no one with the unfortunate prospects of seeing a mirage. Her lyrics have moved away from the norm where many artists are known to lift verses from the Bible and quote them verbatim without examining the context. She has not just quoted Hagar's predicament in the desert, but has gone further to teach us the lesson God intends for us, while using very simple language. She has compared her thirst for God to an antelope (thwariga) panting for water. No one should accuse her of borrowing from As The Deer Panteth for Water, as we do not have them in Kenya.

Sarah's enactment of the episode for the video is equally powerful, even though the child she has portrayed as Ishmael is rather too young, taking into consideration that before they were forced from Abraham's homestead, he had been circumcised (along with his father) at age 13. Sarah Mwangi has introduced her family (I want to believe so), but they have only managed to slow down the song's cadence, as some are at times out of step and others not looking very serious. However the two young children captured separately (2:24-2:28 and 4:20-4:23) attempting to dance to the beat have come out with flying colours. Video clip mixing is of a high standard, especially with the dropping in of clips where she is singing the refrain mimicking the young Ishmael crying out for water (1:12-1:14 and others). If one listens carefully at the opening of the video, one will hear the sound of water flowing!

The underlying message by Sarah, and that is what makes the song great, is that just as Ishmael's cries were heard in the desert, your cries today have been heard by God. This goes on to confirm that God does not misspeak, and that His promises are true. For her superlative effort, Sarah Mwangi gets four and a half (4 ½) of our green stars. We need more singers like Sarah to communicate God's blessings to us in such a powerful manner.