Kenya: a malnourished nation

One of the traditional basic needs of human beings is food. It is very helpful for the proper functioning of the body. That is, it provides energy and minerals to help reform the body after its tear and wear. Hence people go a milestone to have it daily on their tables. Otherwise without it, they do not get proper development and good health. It is this reason that food security is among the four key pillars of the Jubilee government. 

But then, how far, has Kenyans as a nation tamed the issue of food in the country? Do we abuse food, as we do at times with drugs and alcohol? 

The big story of Baby Ethai’s health in the Turkana County published in the Healthy Nation dated Tuesday October 15, 2019 tells it all. 

He is fed, day in day out, with only porridge! A 100% carbohydrate-dominated diet. With no other components like protein and vitamins, he suffers acute malnutrition. His story is just but a tip of the iceberg of different cases of malnutrition in the country. Unfortunately, as a nation we are losing the battle on food security. 

It is good to note that, food security equally entails healthy feeding, for hunger and obesity coexist. Hence, for a nation to secure itself on matters food, there are a number of factors to consider. Here, I pick only two which I esteem important. 

Primo, the type of food we eat.

This year’s international World Food Day focuses on the quality of food in our diet. We not only eat food, but we check on what type of food we eat. It is a noble call “to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone”. Am on the adjective “healthy”. This means that we should consume variety of food stuff that gives our bodies the necessary nutrients for proper growth.

Unfortunately majority of Kenyans eat unhealthily. Our appetites have made us experts of quick junk food and drinks. This is empirically evident in every busy street of towns and cities whose six out of ten stores are food dens, with fried meal’s odour filling the street lanes. The order is done quickly; chips and kuku funga! And repeated daily! No wonder we are at high risk of obesity, cancer and heart complications leading to death. 

Unlike the parents of the Baby Ethai, we are advised to balance our diet. Yes, fries but also vitamins and minerals too.

Secundo, food storage and preservation.

I hope we no longer have unfit-for-human consumption preservatives added to the food stuffs in the food market. As someone once said, we Kenyans are a forgetful lot. It’s my humble hope that we have not forgotten about the “Red Alert”, in which discovery was made on how we consume higher concentration of sodium metabulsifite meant to make the meat appear red and juicy! 

Our food is not clean! This at times is due to poor storage, which then leads to food poisoning. Those of us who like take away meals and sometime carry food to work, do we ever check the conditions under which we store the food? Do we warm them to reduce the presence of bacteria in them before consumption? Are our grains in the stores safe for consumption? Is the Kenya Bureau of Standards checking the food stuff that stay longer in our supermarkets? 

Let us recheck our food before we eat, for we eat to live and not live to eat.

The joy of AD 2008

The year 2008 had gone and the rest is history. A living history, for the events that welcomed it are still fresh in the minds of many especially for us, Kenyans, whose tears both ushered and concluded the year; tears of sorry and tears of joy.

People, ‘an unexamined life is not worth living’. Hence responding to this Socratic call, it is a time for evaluation of that time spent on earth and formulation of resolutions for the New Year.

Recollection of that year is met by different feelings. All of us are counting both the losses and the gains. To some, it was a moment of joy, while others a tragedy that registered sorrow in their earthly journey. Sorrows that even Obama’s win as the first black in the American’s presidential circle, will never erase.

I too had the taste of the year. Some of the events increased my adrenaline level, filled me with awe, left me tongue-tied and with water-welling eyes. While others saw me vibrating in ecstasy and having hopeful visions!

I remember that at some point, our seminary at Langata had to open a week late, not because of the mismanagement rather due to societal misunderstanding that rocked the country by then.

Nonetheless, it was a wonderful year set apart by the Lord, and that does not eliminate the possibility of yet another memorable year, my hope. Let’s leave that at the mercy of God, the giver of years.

As a young boy in my home town, I grew up with the church circles having special cozy image of a church shepherd, a bishop. The one who confirmed me into the Catholic faith imprinted in me this illusory figure of a bishop, heavy and confidently rooted in the soil, well-fed man, cathedral-sized belly, bald headed so that the bishop’s cap may fit his head, no beards at all, wears thick-lenssed glasses, and always in a roman-collar shirt with a big metallic crucifix hanging on his neck!

In his homily, my ‘bishop’ has to stammer a bit and prolong the pronunciations and intonations not the usual way and changes the positions of stresses in the vowel sounds. He has to wear gloves during the sacramental celebration, a phenomenon that earned him his trade mark and worn my humble admiration by then.

All these were signs that he is full of graces, hence his honorable ecclesiastical title ‘His Grace, the Archbishop’, as I fathomed by then.

It was until the day I left my home town region that this image landed a blow! A scandal to my ‘bishop’s image!

For me by then, all bishops were to be shaped, to behave, to talk and to dress in that manner. Little had I known that I would come across a slander, not bald, full-blown bearded bishop, with no spectacles and one who even enjoys riding motorbike and celebrate masses in outstations alone with no concelebrant! One who even puts on open shoes that let his toes peep out!

The distortion process wasn’t pleasing at all. It was though very helpful in opening up and being objective to other realities in the church and the society at large.

The year 2008 was a landmark period, for I not only met and shook hands, at different occasions, with five bishops but also built an objective ‘bishop’!

Sounds a big joke, no? 

But you will agree with me that without an appointment with the owner of bishopric, it will be a miracle to meet and greet one due to their nature of apostolate. And kissing five bishop’s rings in less than just a year sparks the mighty flame of joyful graces. In fact other lucky colleagues and I almost met a Pope!

It was this day that we had an impromptu visit by four bishops. They had come for a meeting at Bethany House and were keeping abreast with this section of the Allamano Complex (about Allamano Complex is a topic of another day). 

One of them had two-fold office, as an Archbishop and an Apostolic Nuntio to Kenya. He stands for the Pope in Kenya. He brought the Papacy in our Novitiate at that time. Others included bishop Kihara, Pante and one whom I forgot his name just few minutes after introduction due to sparks of joy that radiated from my silently jubilating inner boy. But very well recalls his office, he is in charge of the Catholic Action in Rome.

Then came the silver jubilee of the sisters of Mary Immaculate at Kagio. Here, I shared a dressing room which also acted as a sacristy with His Eminence John Cardinal Njue. I didn’t go to pry about. I had ecclesial duty to execute, to serve at the altar as an altar boy. The first mass I ever served celebrated by His Eminence, the Cardinal, one who is in charge of the Church in Kenya.

All these translated to joyful graces God had in store for me, an inspiration in life.

As we make new objectives for the year 2009, we should be watchful to interpret the signs of the time. Grief will come and thrill the other side of the coin but stand firm this year. Therefore, set time also to look back from where you have come, for it will not only give you little impetus to the rest of your earthly life, but also help you be objective in the way you see reality. Have a blessed and peaceful year, will you?