My heart is with university graduates, currently unemployed, currently stuck in some slum in Nairobi.
First of all, we don’t know the rationale of distributing money or food. But the elderly in the villages will probably receive, as the chiefs maintain a database of the same. I don’t know the logisitics of distributing food in a slum.
I have lived in a slum. I have visited guys in slums. And when it rains like it has throughout the night, it is not easy to navigate, and it is hard to account for everyone in a slum.
Graduates have a double burden. Some may shy away from going for the msaada. While it may sound like foolish, as hunger and poverty should not have shame, but I can understand where their is shame coming from.
Being a graduate in Kenya and you come from the overpopulated tribes; Kisii, Kikuyu, Luo, Luhyia, Kamba, is a special burden. Because you can’t really go home. The university degree was a one-way ticket out of the village. The alternative is to go back and drink bad liquor to your grave. But most graduates I know have some ambition and integrity. and want to do good by themselves and to their parents. But the years after graduation in recent years are tough.
Currently, unemployment rates are anywhere above 40 percent. When people graduate, they go to start from any of the slums in Nairobi. Because after college, you can’t go to stay with a relatives.
In our generation, we were lucky, we could camp in an uncle house in Buru Buru. But there has been a generational shift. The big men and women who could take care of graduates in the intervening period they were on attachment or looking for jobs, are either dead or have gone to the village.
Presently, nobody can play host as capitalism speedily catches up with us. So, a number of graduates prefer sleeping on the floor with a mecko, With his smartphone and an airtel line he can stream a movie, or read online. Without corona some do mjengo, or some errands or anything for money. But with the bug, the poor have no means as the wheels of capitalism grind to a halt.
Hence, they need msaada by all means. But they are likely to be overlooked by everyone.
Pray for them too. They are our sons and daughters, they exist in a no-man’s land. It is not their crime that they passed exams. It is not their crime that some may be shy to ask for help.
But also, remember them. Send them 100 bob. Send them 200 bob. If you can.
