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.