By Albert Nyakundi Amenya aka The Banana Peddler
Despite the dryness, Kambaland is known to produce some of the most pulchritudinous, intelligent and well-mannered women with morally acceptable traits. Kamba women are not only beautiful, but also meek and acquiescent to their hubbies.
Any man, who espouses a lady from Ukambani, rarely regrets, unless he pushes her. I am saying this authoritatively because I have not heard of an exception. The holy Bible is right you know, sometimes in a marriage, it rewards for a woman to be timid. And Kambas know that well. When her marriage is in quagmire, a Kamba wife does not stupidly protest with impunity.
Unlike their counterparts from Mt. Kenya region, they don’t take it to the boxing ring or chop some body parts of their poor men. They decorously carry themselves while the problem is being looked into. As a proverb puts it “A hungry wolf is fixed to no place” but when her husband lacks, she understands. Even when she sleeps hungry, her happiness remains on normal-mode. Conversely, it is business as usual all through the night to the next morning. That is why billionaires from Mt. Kenya are not willing to take chances on marrying the ‘wonderful’ girls their women brought up. They go seeking for wives in Ukambani.
Governor Charity Ngilu is one of the greatest women of modern times. She is not only beautiful, but also among the most fearless governors whose doggedness must be lauded and emulated ambidextrously by every right thinking human with functional compos mentis. Ngilu shares traits with the expired icon Professor Wangari Maathai. To her, urine cannot clean faeces. She remains Ngilu and there is nothing haters can do about that.
As a farmer and banana peddler, I unstintingly buttress governor Ngilu on her move to ban charcoal trade in Kitui. I don’t support the burning of the vehicles transporting charcoal but I am certain Ngilu doesen’t approve of it either, neither did she order for the torching. Those who burnt the vehicles, I dare say it was totally out of character.
We all know that In this nation of pretenders, Waititu and company are not fighting for the torched vehicles. Insurance will pay them anyway. They are protesting the charcoal ban which is their lucrative business. Those like me who know governor Waititu, will not take him with utmost seriousness. He is the man who never sticks with facts but descends into the arena of partisanship and tribalism.
For those who are accustomed to Kiambu County, there are huge forests in. In Limuru for instance, there is this dense pine tree forest serenely located alongside Nairobi-Nakuru Highway. Question is why would someone from Kiambu County leave trees in his county and go to Ukambani to burn charcoal?
You see, the catastrophe that Ukambani envisages is uncomfortably close. People are dying like flies everyday for lack food because there is no rain. I don’t think the land can take it anymore. Sincerely, you want to travel from Kiambu to Ukambani, maneuver through your forests all the way to Kitui, spend Ksh300 to buy a sack of charcoal, take it to Nairobi and sell it at Ksh1500? At a profit of 500 per cent? In short: No stress, no worry, easy cash. But the stakes are too high now.
Long story short, Charity must be supported by all Kenyans of goodwill as she forests Kitui. She must be protected from these enemies of the environment from Kiambu. Anybody who raises a hand against her must be chased to the last gate of hell. Ngilu’s action has qualified as a person whose work is full of reckon. Ngilu is a true environmental activist. She fights for the progress of her people. She hates corruption. She has fearlessly elected to fiercely take on both the high and mighty from Mt. Kenya Mafia because that is what she was elected to do.
If you can’t beat them, join them. Ngilu can’t beat the cartels in their dirty game, but she can’t join them either because she cares for her people. She has, without any fear of intimidation, voiced her honest opinion freely and at the same time made it clearly known that every Kenyan has inalienable right to cut and burn charcoal in his own County where he was birthed. She nonetheless, has strived to get her facts right before venturing to take any action.
Hate her or lover her, she remains Mama Rainbow. She must remain strong for the sake of the weak. Albeit in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar it is quoted that “Security gives way to conspiracy” Ngilu must not cow. She must not give way to cartels. Hereat, the great people of Kitui will forever owe her a huge debt of gratitude. Long live mama rainbow.
albertamenya@yahoo.com
(The writer sells bananas in the streets of Kisii town)
Leave a Reply