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Heavy responsibilities for elder aunt among the Logooli

With Seenge Fonesi. She is the elder grand daughter of Isagi and elder daughter of Amugasya. She is often present in functions involving the family of Amugasya. Pic taken on 18/4/2024. The elder sister soon becomes the elder aunt. It is this “seenge munene” (elder aunt) tag that she is tied to many cultural responsibilities – back home. To her marital family she may appear as any other woman, but she is not so in the eyes of her people. Marriage does not steal her away as it would happen with other daughters of the old man. To her, as days go and the old man and woman of the estate are dependents, she becomes increasingly present.  Her brothers also need her for almost all traditional markings. They are marrying, she needs to welcome the new wife. They are giving birth, she needs to come to midwife or “bless” the new born. They are paying dowry she needs to lead the women delegate. There is a conflict she needs to come for a hearing.  And many others. Traditions does not expect her to
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Every Citizen deserves a basic Pay

Most of the present day ideas approach the third world as a surprise. Majority of African initiatives are always in the middle of laying down the mat to sit before a crisis forces the mat to be coiled again and sojourn for another land. Yesterday for instance, a country that I’ve forgot its name outlined procedures of giving all citizens unemployed a basic income. The president should be shot!

Could you imagine the Kenyan middleclass populace without the help of slum people? Who would put their clothes in the machine? Their dogs would be fed by who? The pampers that their children put to waste…who would come to take them for only five hundred shillings a month? Who would ask for work in a construction site?

Income disparities bring up the inequalities we are experiencing as a nation. A good number of Kenyans live from hand to mouth, educating a child is a process of rubbing sandpaper on one’s thigh. Agriculture is our leading GDP venture. The poor people who toil in the stretches of wheat, rice, maize and flowers would hang up their boots as soon as something to support them is about.

No one is purely lazy. People find essence in work and different people cherish different types of work. Money and work is not directly proportional and hence money should not be treated as compensation for work. You would need money anyway whether you worked or not. And you would intrinsically work better without the thought of money in you.

The only jobs I have had so far have been volunteer tasks. There was no pay apart from facilitations in some instances. Wasn’t that work? The people I worked with while volunteering, all employed, never did better work. It was all work. When I could not facilitate myself, my legs punctured, I could not go to some venues. If I had a basic source of income that does not tie me to a chair wherever, I’d volunteer to the threshold.

It is good that the said country will not decide how the money should be used. Get your money and do whatever you want with it! It won’t be enough, I know but I will use it to be more stable and free. I’d chase my passions instead of reporting to an office or work place year in year out. I’d never find myself in traffic. I’d visit the villages for stories for I love writing. I’d request the government to increase the amount. I’d slave in no flower farm.

Families would be stronger. Couples would decide who to stay with the child at home and do the important chores. No innocent girl would slave as a maid, no households would experience extreme poverty, and there would be enough capital to initiate means of production. Projects would be sustainable. Fathers would again be called fathers and not watchmen, caretakers or soldiers. Theft, prostitution and other vices would be optional.


But you see, this is Africa where Doctors and Engineers become politicians. Not that they want to build a stronger and healthier democracy but because they kinda went to the wrong classes.

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