Page 24 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 22

Community

er-stepdad. So, simply it’s a broken facilities... collective, individual trauma, bring
family unit. And there’s also cor- Yeah, because we have by-laws, so a sense of healing, because if e
ruption because you’ll ask the child, the question is how did this person don’t do that we’ll just be bandaging
“What happened?” They will say, “I end up putting up such an establish- situations and not dealing with the
went out stealing because I needed ment there? real issues. And I find that it is not
food.” That is poverty. So that one just the people who are the middle
is advanced by this person holding So there’s an entire chain in this class and all that, we have a sense of
an office somewhere misappropriat- whole ecosystem that supports helplessness that makes us not value
ing public funds. And then you meet the dysfunction, but all of it is humanity because let’s say when
another child and this child tells, dysfunctional up to the governor- someone is involved in an accident
you know, “Honestly, I don’t know, ship, or the senatorship, or the you’ll still find people stealing from
because I live with my grandmother. presidency. Because no one is the injured, and even others stealing
And my parents just decided I actually paying attention to what from the dead. And so the question
should be living with my grand- kind of society are we planning is what is happening? It’s because we
mother and my grandmother is also to harvest at the end of the day. are isolated socially, and we’re also
tired of me.” So, what happens is It’s more like: No, we’re going isolated internally.
that these children are acting out as to say that Kenya is successful And the worst is internal isolation
a result of the pain they are going because people are earning this because by so doing there’s no
through. But we don’t want to ad- much money and 3000 children connection between the brain, the
dress the pain, we want to rectify be- more went to school this year, heart, and your hands. So, there’s
havior. And sometimes we also want even if it was by force. We’re go- such distortion where what you’re
to medicate behavior. Sometimes it’s ing to say that now we’re collect- thinking and how your heart, your
just a dysfunctional society. Because ing more money in revenues even soul is they’re totally different, and
I remember there is this patient, a though they sent the revenue then what your hands are doing. So
young child who came for psycho- authority to arm-twist everybody I tell people actually that internal
therapy in a public hospital. Then and collect. So, the whole eco- isolation is worse than civil war.
the mother said, “You need to make system is actually causing fear to
sure that he gets medicine.” I said, thrive and people to be injured, So, this is why they’re trying to
“No, no.” So, I asked the mother who feel like they cant articulate help fix foundational issues like
where she lives and she told me; it’s their challenges. So, children are parenting, or identity, or even
actually near a bus stop. And then setting fire to schools but the working with institutions public
they are building their nightclubs. reason for doing it is not even institutions to try and help re-
And then what happens to such a sorted out. store some kind of, I don’t know
child, ADHD? Yeah, it is not, and you see what I I guess it would be perspective,
tell people is that we’re so preoc- and humanity?
But the question is why would cupied by our positions, that we It’s human dignity and to restore hu-
you have someone having such an forget we live in a community. And man dignity, one, we must embrace
establishment in a residential area? if we can look within then that doing what is right even when it’s
It’s simply because of greed and it’s means we’ll be able to address what uncomfortable. We must embrace
actually an element of isolation. So, is happening. And what happens in justice and reconciliation, we must
it is fear driving this person to put our society, especially when working embrace that the core of a child’s
up such an establishment in a resi- with young people, you find that development is giving that child love
dential area, because their definition currently, we have so many young that they need. And love is not in
of success is how much they get. So people resisting in different coun- things, love is connecting with the
they will not think about the ripple tries and sometimes we say, it is soul of that child. And it’s okay to
effect. They will get their profits because of unemployment but even make a child comfortable, but the
today, but ten years down the line, the ones who are employed are still most important thing is, is there
we’ll still have a child who has men- reacting. So, unemployment is not human connection in that home,
tal illness as a result of profits. necessarily the main issue. The main in that society? And also ensuring
issue here is that we have a society that we equip people on what to
And meanwhile they’ve also been that is dysfunctional and the only do, actually one of the things that
paying bribes to county officials way to make this society function- I’m discouraging parents today is
so that they can maintain those al is to make sure that we address that when you see a young person,

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