Field Marshal
Elder Lister
My pureblood heart is breaking.
My people - the Southern Gikuyu of Ndeiya - are committing economic and physical harakiri like moths drawn to a flame.
Last weekend, we buried a promising young man in his 30s. A graduate no less. He had drunk himself to death.
Across the land of the Southern Gikuyu, stretching all the way from Ruaka, Wangigi, Waithaka, Dagoretti, Gitaru, Kikuyu, Gikambura, Lussiggitti, Thigio, Mungetho, Kamangu, Muguga, Kamirithu and Limuru, the story is the same; young men are selling their inheritance to drink like crazied zombies for two or three brief years, and then die in penury like dogs.
The problem is particularly bad along the Gikambura-Kamangu-Thigio-Limuru salient, where the new Dagoretti Road (and a host of new developments like electricity, ample water, better amenities) has seen land prices jump by nearly 1000% in just a decade. A mzee in Kamangu recently made us laugh sadly, tears in our hearts, when he told us, over ribs and muratina, that he had over-heard one young man ask another; "Ni kii wahurika uu kai aciari matuire?" (Mbona umehurika namna hii kwani wazazi bado wako?". Implication? Kama wazazi bado wako pengine wamemkataza kuuza shamba ndiyo sababu amesota!
In that same Kamangu, the record stands that one young man was able to spend Sh1 million from a shamba sale in a flat 21 days. Just how he did it, in a nondescript market centre with no casinos, five-star establishments or high-end hoes, is beyond all of us. Now he works in a quarry breaking stones.
Another young man, Mwaura, built his newly-acquired mistress a house, started a chain of businesses (he was the first to sell chicken in Kamangu at an establishment called County Butchery) and bought fast cars, thanks to a Sh12 million windfall from selling his inherited land (we once drunk Sh16,800 of his at the 1st floor bar at Wainaina-Kidero's Kobil Petrol Station in Gikambura). Today he sells sukuma by the roadside, I hear. His former mistress runs matatus and can't be seen dead with him.
We of the Southern Gikuyu, the last of the Mountain of God purebloods, say that 'ruruu rutari njau rutingitherema". A herd without calves cannot last or flourish.
Our young are wasting their wealth of yore, and throwing their inheritance to the four winds. Our calves are dying.
As we, old men and women of our people stare at our sunsets, the only thing we can ask is that Ngai, Mwenenyaga, returns his forgiving gaze on our people, and restores our land, our youth and our women.
Turi a Mumbi!!!
My people - the Southern Gikuyu of Ndeiya - are committing economic and physical harakiri like moths drawn to a flame.
Last weekend, we buried a promising young man in his 30s. A graduate no less. He had drunk himself to death.
Across the land of the Southern Gikuyu, stretching all the way from Ruaka, Wangigi, Waithaka, Dagoretti, Gitaru, Kikuyu, Gikambura, Lussiggitti, Thigio, Mungetho, Kamangu, Muguga, Kamirithu and Limuru, the story is the same; young men are selling their inheritance to drink like crazied zombies for two or three brief years, and then die in penury like dogs.
The problem is particularly bad along the Gikambura-Kamangu-Thigio-Limuru salient, where the new Dagoretti Road (and a host of new developments like electricity, ample water, better amenities) has seen land prices jump by nearly 1000% in just a decade. A mzee in Kamangu recently made us laugh sadly, tears in our hearts, when he told us, over ribs and muratina, that he had over-heard one young man ask another; "Ni kii wahurika uu kai aciari matuire?" (Mbona umehurika namna hii kwani wazazi bado wako?". Implication? Kama wazazi bado wako pengine wamemkataza kuuza shamba ndiyo sababu amesota!
In that same Kamangu, the record stands that one young man was able to spend Sh1 million from a shamba sale in a flat 21 days. Just how he did it, in a nondescript market centre with no casinos, five-star establishments or high-end hoes, is beyond all of us. Now he works in a quarry breaking stones.
Another young man, Mwaura, built his newly-acquired mistress a house, started a chain of businesses (he was the first to sell chicken in Kamangu at an establishment called County Butchery) and bought fast cars, thanks to a Sh12 million windfall from selling his inherited land (we once drunk Sh16,800 of his at the 1st floor bar at Wainaina-Kidero's Kobil Petrol Station in Gikambura). Today he sells sukuma by the roadside, I hear. His former mistress runs matatus and can't be seen dead with him.
We of the Southern Gikuyu, the last of the Mountain of God purebloods, say that 'ruruu rutari njau rutingitherema". A herd without calves cannot last or flourish.
Our young are wasting their wealth of yore, and throwing their inheritance to the four winds. Our calves are dying.
As we, old men and women of our people stare at our sunsets, the only thing we can ask is that Ngai, Mwenenyaga, returns his forgiving gaze on our people, and restores our land, our youth and our women.
Turi a Mumbi!!!
