Modern Opinion

The society should not view us as a burden Children with different abilities bear weights that they should not have to. One unacquainted journalist recently asked me during an interview, “were you, or are you a burden to your parents?” In the interest of self-control, suitable replies to the overly insensitive question raced through my mind. “Why don’t you ask my parents!”, I thought to myself. The more I thought of what to answer the more painful it became. It then dawned on me that this was actually the reality of children with different abilities. We are viewed as a burden to society, throughout the course of our lives. There I was, all grown up, comfortably capable of checking myself into such interviews, a graduate nonetheless, and yet, the same prejudice still plagued me. Tears flowed as I attempted to answer her question. I recently visited a well-known children’s home that has hosted children with different abilities for decades. They were in the process o...

When will tomorrow ever come? I f we are the leaders of tomorrow, when will tomorrow come? In the 80’s and 90’s, our parents told us that we indeed were and we believed them. We studied and prepared hard. Fast forward to 2019, we are still the leaders of tomorrow. Are we not growing? Could 2019 be a code name for 1980? For some strange reason, we cannot seem to get jobs. When we do, we never get promoted. It is true experience is required. However, it must be acquired. It can not really be bought. This then begs the question; how do we acquire it from outside? Dear parents, tell us. Internships are also no longer free. My undergraduate classes were filled with Generation X (Gen X) managers and senior officers. After years of ‘on the job training’, they were then pursuing their first degrees. Why can we not be given the same level of trust? After all, we already even have the degrees. Worse still, at home here in Kenya, every job application requires original certificat...

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga We need a new set of celebrities in Kenya. Politicians alone are not enough. Yes, there are actors and singers who we ‘all’ know. However, do we accord them the same attention that we do politicians? I am not saying that politicians are bad. Nevertheless, the same may not be said for all of them – a topic for another day. I once saw a video of the child who could recite the names of all the 47 Kenyan governors at the time. It was very impressive given her age. Though it got me wondering: how is it that they are so famous, enough to be known even by a toddler? It is then that I stumbled on a rather unfortunate realization. Every time we watch television or listen to our radios, it is politicians that dominate the headlines. This is the same case with newspapers. When was the last time your favourite musician appeared on the first page of your newspaper? or even as the first news item on television? Mass media ...

Sex sells S ex sells. That is a fact that is as sure as money itself.  Recently, a famous Kenyan songstress has found herself on peoples’ lips for all the wrong reasons. Her crime: doing a live stage performance half-naked. However, before we join her critics’ bandwagon, we need to understand a few things. Why does sex sell? Famous rapper T.I once said, “a rapper’s material is mostly influenced by their immediate environment”. This is after he was asked why African-American rap songs mostly preached violence and confrontations with the police. This was at a time when police brutality was at an all-time high in America. Some quarters may dismiss that statement. However, we cannot simply assume its logic. American rap group NWA sold millions of records in their time. This was from the production of such songs. Whether such songs are good or bad for the society, is not really the question here. There is only one thing that boldly stands out: the classic de...