Blind at dawn!

Its one of this cold and chilly Nairobi mornings at around 6.00 a.m. and people are rushing to different destinations to such, to meet their needs as KENYA is a working nation, I meet JUMA one of my long time friends and who due to high poverty levels and lack of parental care wasn’t lucky to secure himself a chance in school for him to be knowledgeable.

Slum life is not easy, Juma earns his living through pushing handcarts, carrying goods to and from places around the KIBERA slums, he has been living  here since his childhood and for him to do his job well , he has to be drunk of his favorite illegal brew, which without he feels dead tired and unable to work.

So we left through the dark pathways in between the short mud walled houses to a destination which he knew, we  crossed over these strange smelling tunnels passing garbage till we came to a green gate, which after knocking the normal joyful mood of drunkard had been replaced by mourning.

The day before over ten people had died of taking that brew while thirteen more lost their sight , who were Juma’s friends, after getting this  sad news , Juma only nods his head and says “I will withdraw from this brew to another,” says Juma.

Illegal brew has been a hindering issue in the society for a long time now, but due to high corruption in the government the poor only keeps on suffering with no one to hear their grievances.

About four years down the line, people in eastern province died of the same illegal brew and the government only issued threats, three months ago here in Nairobi, people lost their dear livess and others sight , now in Kibera slums, where a total number of twenty three people lost their lives and others sight.

Desperate times needs desperate measures, it’s a high time the government protected its people and mostly the poor, who are highly affected by this problem every now and then. For how long will we watch, children becoming orphans, women becoming widows, our brothers and sisters dying of a thing which can be easily controlled?