Normal wasn’t good

Early this year when miss Rona went berserk and carried with it some lingua that we were not used to – lockdowns, curfews, masks, ventilators, sanitizers and fear – I received these pictures from a friend captioned ‘The World is Closed for Repair.’

That time, the virus had not been reported in Kenya and like many of us here, I thought this was a ‘Wuhan’ issue that only affected (or would affect) others.

Fast forward to March 13th. News come in that Kenya had reported its first case of Covid-19 becoming the first country in the East Africa region to report. And just like that I found myself in this movie (you & I in the cast).

The spiritual relevance of what we are going through cannot be underestimated. I draw my lessons from a sermon by Pastor James Okumu, during our Intermedia Fellowship today.

While Covid-19 is not here to stay, it has killed many things that God want dead yet we want them back. Many want to go back to the normal they know. Sad!

See, God can kill something to put us in a corner. While it’s tempting, as Christians we need to stop looking back.

We are in a new season. God has given us free time. Soak in His Word. Seek His presence. Revive the family altar. Find out what God wants to do in the new normal and embrace it.

God cannot disrupt the whole world in vain. The World has been stopped not for repair but for you and me.

So much is being birthed during this time of crisis. We will know what you have been doing with the free time soon. Work it Out. Manifest!

God My Father Part 1

………..I grew up in a single parent family. The story goes that when I was two years old my parents separated and mum choose to go single all the way. She was hardworking, determined and a self-driven woman, did all she could to put food on the table. O how I love and miss my childhood. Had everything a child of my age needed; went to the best private schools, played with the best toys in town & dressed in good clothes.

Born in a Christian family I was introduced to Sunday school at a tender age. I learnt Bible stories and recited memory verses as well as acted in skits in the local Full Gospel Church.

Well, nobody is a child forever. Time came for me to move to Nairobi after university education, as we call it ‘joining the world’. My first agenda when I got to Nairobi was to get a Bible believing church where I would worship. Remember my foundation had everything Christian inscribed in my little mind. However, I had no idea that lack of a father when growing up would affect how I view God as a father.

As I was looking for a job to survive in Nairobi my pastor preached a powerful sermon on ‘fatherhood’. Having been in this church for only three months I started considering finding another Church-because his sermon was very irrelevant to me. I liked the pastor’s wife though, that made me to give Bishop a second chance. Believe it or not, bishop preached on fatherhood again- four Sundays in a row! Did he know I didn’t have a father? did he know he was about to lose a member? did he know how ‘irrelevant’ his sermon on fatherhood was to me?  Thank God he heed to the voice of God because this is the sermon that changed my entire life. It opened my mind to the fatherhood of God. I fervently began to search and discover God- my Father.

God is our father. Because of His ‘bigness’ He has assigned earthly fathers to His children  on earth. We have four types of fathers-political fathers, professional fathers, biological and spiritual fathers. Because they are men, sometimes they fail or neglect their responsibility. That doesn’t change the love God has for His Children which is unconditional. He is our help in times of need and to discover yourself and why you are on this planet begins and ends with God.

Women who grow without fathers often suffer low self-esteem and lack of confidence.  Because they live in big families and a society that undermines single parents anybody can speak into their lives, say positive or negative things. Without the proper definition of themselves their identity is blurred and confused causing bad attitude and behavior. They also take too long to discover their purpose because they feel they were an accident. Sometimes they lack the courage to go for even things meant for them in life for example inheritance.

They go through rough waters trying to fit in families/society only to realize they never belong there causing more damage to their identity. To make matters worse they have to face persistent stereotyping. Whether they live a chaste life or not “naturally” they are labelled promiscuous, prostitute, loose, husband snatcher etc.  People never take them seriously especially in the area of marriage not because they failed but because of their background. It’s all about their fatherless names.

Having grown up in a single family I stand to encourage anyone that with God my father all is possible. When I embraced God as my father I learnt to exclusively rely on Him. He has everything that I need and can answer all your questions.

You have what it takes to be the woman/man you want to be. To marry the man/woman of your dreams and raise beautiful children in a functional family. That said you have everything it takes to fulfill your God given assignment on earth. Remember you are here on earth for a purpose.

The following are the qualities of God my Father. Like me, embrace Him.

1. God is the creator and ruler of the universe- God is your creator, has your manual and knows why you were born in a single parent family. Trust Him to take you where you ought to be. With Him all things are possible.
2. God is all Loving- I know John 3:16 is a cliché already so let’s go with Zephaniah 3:17 which says “…He will quite you by His love”
3. God is all knowing- Before God formed you in your mother’s womb, He knew you so trust Him to provide for you all you need on earth. Jeremiah 1:5
4. God is protector. According to Duet 31:6 God is your protector. He will never leave you nor forsake you
5. God is a provider-Any good father will provide for his children (Matthew 6:31-31), (Psalm 34:10) God is much more a provider for His children more than the earthly father.
6. God teaches and trains his children- God will take you through His school and teach you His ways, correct you when you wade away

 

In my next article I will tell you how I got confidence to live a victorious life.Things to do, things to avoid…..!

Four (4) Qualities of a good friend

…….Faith is a good friend. We met in Church back in 2012 when she joined a department where I had been serving for about four years.

She was first introduced to me by Sue, another good friend and prayer partner. Faith looked bubbly, friendly and sometimes a snob! I hope she doesn’t see this post (ha ha). As we interacted I liked her good self-esteem, self-confidence, good sense of style not to mention that she is very beautiful. That was in 2012- I was judging her only from her outlook because we had just met.

Fast-forward to September 2016. Four years later I can comfortably describe Faith inside out. She is a woman of valor, a woman excellence, caring, respectful, supportive, prayerful and above all God-fearing. I have endless words to describe Faith……Because she is my good friend.

This brings me to my topic on the qualities of good friends.

There is an English proverb that says “Birds of a feather flock together”. Believe me that you will never see sparrows flying together with eagles. Scientists say the reason that birds fly in groups for safety. When a bird flies alone, it’s more vulnerable to predators.

People too behave like birds! We all need friends who have the same believe as us. We need people of ‘the same feather to flock with us”We all need friends.

A friend is a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection…let’s stop at that definition by the Oxford dictionary.

From my life experience I strongly advocate that people should have friends & the following qualities make good friends. Come with me as we discover good friends.

1-Trustworthy

This is the make or break in any relationship. Trust takes time to be cemented yet remains the most sensitive of all. I doubt if you can get back trust is you lose it. Most trust is lost to gossip, betrayal, dishonest, disrespect etc. Friendship stands on two pillars- trust and loyalty. Friends share secrets and those secrets must be kept. Any person who back stabs you does not deserve a seat in your life because a back stabber operates on negative loyalty.

Further, friends who steal material things from you belong in jail not your house!

If you see any signs of mistrust in a friend, weed him or her out of your life and move on without any apology.

2- Respectful

Social media has made respect a hard to find virtue these days. There is a generation that believes more in freedom of expression without caring how the expression is made. Most of us have a social media account where we express our views and opinion about life and about others.

Unfortunately, careless comments on Facebook or Twitter accounts spill into our homes, public joints, church, and school. How we say it to each other ends up hurting our very own friends who care and support us in times of need thus losing their friendship.

Respect is a deep feeling that must be expressed for any relationship to prosper.

3-Honesty

The growth of any mature friendship is based on honesty. An honest friend says the truth even when it hurts and eventually that same truth saves us from pain. To have an everlasting bond with our friends it is paramount that we speak only the truth. Sometimes speaking the truth which can hurt needs great wisdom and objectivity. Always seek God’s guidance.

I must say when we speak the truth to a friend and he/she takes it wrongly, ask God to give you an opportunity to explain yourself. Never allow your friend to take a wrong route in life. Speak the truth.

4-Supportive

Many people have easy time establishing friendships when in good times. The same friends who were there drop us when in need.

A friend in need is a friend in deed. That saying resonates with most people who have been fooled into friendships for wrong reasons. Anybody in your circle who shows tendencies to appear when in need of something should be dropped. Friends should help each other not use each other.

Go ye and make a good friend!

THE RARE SPECIES

The cool mom’s generation. I call it. Those that do more harm than good and have to justify what they are doing to their own children. The moms who won’t breastfeed their babies for they worry about saggy breasts. The moms who posts everything about their children on social media. I don’t care about those moms; it is the children who I worry about. I wonder what kind of generation there will be. What happened to the asiye funzwa na mamaye hufunzwa na ulimwengu saying.
The kids who stand up and proudly say in an American accent that they don’t know their mother tongue or even can’t speak fluent Swahili and are not apologetic at all. I’m left to wonder who will be speaking Swahili or their mothers tongue 30 years from now.
When you hear a kid having an American accent and not a Kenyan accent which is way better than the Americans themselves but has never stepped foot on the American soil then there is a problem. What happened to the good old days where children spoke their mother tongue proudly?
The Kenyan culture might be gone, disappearing into the thin air and no one will care because children were brought up being clueless about their own culture. They were raised up the American way but what they won’t be told is how we were colonized by the whites and now they are being taught to live, speak and dine like them. They will feel like outsiders in their own country and still feel like visitors in foreign countries and will have nowhere to call motherland. They will be Kenyan by name but not by blood.
This is why I call them the rare species, the upcoming species that will rule the country 35 years from now. The few who will have knowledge about culture, will be very proud. They will be the rare species.
So all the cool moms let your children speak their mother tongue, when they grow up they might choose to ignore the language or embrace it but you will have done your part.
Before your cool kid starts asking for that Spanish or French class (another country’s first language let him/she first learn theirs fluently) you can skip the writing bit of it just let your kid have the opportunity of gossiping with their fellow friends in their mother tongue when they finally get to the American soil and meet a fellow sibling who speaks the mother tongue, they will thank you.

HAPPINESS

Happiness is the secret to all beauty.
There is no beauty without happiness
-Christian Dior-
Happiness cannot be borrowed, cannot be bought. Happiness should come from within. If happiness does not exist within one, then it takes lots work, hope and courage to find real happiness.
Happiness is one of those things that should come from within you. One shouldn’t be dependent of someone else for his own happiness. Happiness determines a lot in life, it determines your productivity level, your health, and above one’s social interaction.
If you cannot find happiness then fake it until you make it, make it your duty to smile at least twice a day. Pulling a smile can alone boost your moods and be better and feel better. Focus on what you have other than what you don’t. life is built in such a way that you can never be satisfied with it, you crave something more, bigger and better.
But focusing on what you have can greatly boost your moods and realise that you have much way than you imagined. At the same time, it does not mean that you should completely shut out what you want in life. Being happy does not mean you should compromise your standards.
Life reacts according to what you feel. You attract what you feel. Pessimists attract the worse out of life. Optimists are the happiest people
Learn to be happy. Fake being happy until one day you realize that you are actually happy. Detach yourself from unhappy people, people who expect the worst from situations. Get closer to happy people and curl yourself in a happy blanket that would be now be around you and share the happiness.
Make it your bucket list. You won’t realize you are changing until one day you will meet a stranger and she will ask you how come you are always happy and then at that moment you will realize that you are no longer faking. It comes naturally, you will be tempted to tell the whole story but instead you will mumble on how you are grateful for so many things.
Happiness is a magnet; it attracts fellow happy people. Everyone want is to be in your circle, to breathe what you breathe, to eat what you eat and to feel what you feel in order to be as happy as you.
You are only as happy as you allow yourself to be. Once you are happy you will look back and realize how sad you made yourself, how you let yourself get beat up for what you dint accomplish in life and how you stressed over little things in life.
Smile and be happy. Happy is beautiful.

Must read for married people

Is the media in Kenya a Public sphere?

The Post Election period in Kenya refers to the crisis that erupted in several parts of the country after the Electoral commission announced the incumbent Mwai Kibaki as the winner of the general election.

Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), his supporters and the International Observers alleged electoral manipulation prompting them to stage peaceful demonstrations that latter become chaotic after police shot at demonstrators.

Many people lost their lives and others were internally displaced from homes where they were born and grew up in.

Failure by the Government to form a local tribunal to try the perpetrators of the Post Election Violence prompted the ICC to start investigations on what led to the Post Election Violence and the perpetrators of the violence in a bid to offer justice to the victims.

In 2010 the ICC prosecutor announced that he was seeking summons on six people he believed to have the greatest responsibility in the violence.

In 2011, the ICC confirmed charges against four of the six suspects who include Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Francis Muthaura and Joshua Arap Sang.

The ICC process has generated a lot of public interest in the country thus generating varied ideas regarding the process.

In modern society media is a theatre which can be referred as a public sphere which is an area in social life where individuals come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems and through that influence political action either positively or negatively.

Has the media in Kenya played as a public sphere in its coverage of the ICC proceedings and if so has it had any impact in the social, economic and political scene?

Has the media given attention to the four ICC suspects at the expense of the victims of the Post election Violence who are still in camps?

Will the attention given to the ICC proceedings have a positive or negative impact as we approach the general elections in 2013?

Role of Media in Peace building

Peace building is described by the Wikipedia as “outside interventions that are designed to prevent the start or resumption of violent conflict within a nation by creating a sustainable peace.”  

While Cohesion “is the act or state of uniting, or sticking together and integration is an act of combining a racial, religious, or ethnic group.”

One of the roles of the media is agenda setting which means media practitioners have the power to set peace agenda that will influence people against conflict. It is the duty of the media to report responsibly so that audiences are not inclined to violence.

Mass media influences the people powerfully. Audiences react depending on the information relayed on television, newspaper, radio or the social media and therefore the media should not be used to provoke conflict.

The more the media reports on conflict the more inciting and the more it boosts it. As media practitioners we have an opportunity to choose what to report and what not to. This is what is called responsible journalism.

For example we can ignore hate speech made in a public rally and choose to report only matters that are beneficial to national cohesion and integration.

Apart from the crowd in attendance no body will know what was said if it’s not reported in the media and even news makers will be wary of what they say.

Policy makers especially in the media industry should also balance between the crucial part media plays in enhancing conflict and the freedom of expression.

Many journalists will incite their audiences despite their knowledge of the consequences.

Governments should come up with policies that tame the audiences against media incitement and media managers should also implement the policies set by law in their place of work.

So what’s a Tsunami

There is an alert by the Kenyan Government urging Kenyans living near the Indian Ocean to be wary of a posible Tsunami expected to rise 3 metres above the sea level. This has caused panic in Mombasa with many Kenyans fleeing from the seashore. So i asked myself what’s this animal called Tsunami….

Here is my finding

A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake.

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations of underwater nuclear devices), landslides, glacier calving, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.

Tsunami waves do not resemble normal sea waves, because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide, and for this reason they are often referred to as tidal waves.

Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves with periods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called “wave train”.

Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous and they can affect entire ocean basins; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history with over 230,000 people killed in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

The Greek historian Thucydides suggested in 426 B.C. that tsunamis were related to submarine earthquakes but the understanding of a tsunami’s nature remained slim until the 20th century and much remains unknown.

Major areas of current research include trying to determine why some large earthquakes do not generate tsunamis while other smaller ones do; trying to accurately forecast the passage of tsunamis across the oceans; and also to forecast how tsunami waves would interact with specific shorelines.

KWS: Aberdares National Park fire put off

The fire that has been raging in the Aberdare Ranges for the last two weeks has finally been extinguished. The fire was put out with the aid of rains and joint efforts of the local community, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Army and the National Youth Service. 

The total area destroyed by the fire is estimated at 5,000 hectares.The fire broke out on March 15 in the moorlands and since then it has spread fast due to dry vegetation, strong winds and high temperatures during the day.

The areas seriously affected by the fire outbreak include the grassland areas on the moorlands which got burned last year. So far, the fire outbreak has not destroyed the indigenous/bamboo forest.

We would like to express our appreciation to the local community, Kenya Forest Service, the Kenya Army and National Youth Service for helping in fighting the fire. We are also grateful to the well-wishers who supported us with fuel and food supplies as well as the media for updating the public on efforts to contain the fire.

To you all, we say, THANK YOU.  from Kenya Wildlife Services.