IT IS THE POOR WHO SUFFER ALL ALONG

IT IS THE POOR WHO SUFFER ALL ALONG

We live in a rich man’s world where the poor gets affected by almost anything that happens in the society.

The poor has many avenues of letting in sufferings into his life and it’s a fact we have to live with. The only hope for the poor is God and God alone.

Kenya as a country has been experiencing some social and economic problems that have a lot of impact upon the people.  Post Elections Violence, Teachers’ strike, Doctors’ strike, Looming Nurses strike etc

When marauding youths are out there clashing with all their might, the big guys who hold power in our country are somewhere behind iron gates guarded by an armed security personnel probably from GSU. The young men from poor neighborhoods battle it out, steal from their fellow poor people and even kill each other while the children of the “Muthaiga” kingdom are basking their lives behind concrete walls. Prices sky rocket, fuel gets scarce, transport systems are paralyzed and we cannot even travel properly due to hiked fares. But our rich fellow citizens have their food well supplied they don’t even feel the pinch. They are taken to school in school buses or in their private cars; they even mostly travel with their own vehicles as we squeeze ourselves in the only available Public Service Vehicles.

As the teachers strike, public schools where most poor children attend, learning grinds to a stand still. But the rich who normally take their kids to private schools, strike has no effect to them. Due to missing the normal learning cycle, the poor children also are affected psychologically also owing the fact that they know that those who are in the private schools are still learning hence they stand at a better chance of excelling academically than them. Most public schools are also too crowded and the teachers are normally over worked while trying to catch up with the learning pace of all students. As a matter of fact most politicians’ children do not learn in public schools.

Doctors’ strike also has a devastating effect upon the poor. They mostly cannot afford to take their sick to private hospitals due to the cost involved. But the rich, whether there is strike or not their sick are duly cared for. So, the poor continue to suffer. With the sicknesses like AIDS, Malaria, Hepatitis, Cancer, etc taking care of the sick require a lot of money and its so true of you are poor, you are doomed.

As the government through their organ CCK shuts down the so called “Fake” phones, which most believe are “Made in China”, the poor people are the ones going to feel the greatest impact. Most of these phones happen to have so many interesting features which are an attraction to potential customers. Comparing two sets of phones with same features, anyone with a mind on making most out of his meager income will definitely go for the most affordable one. Consequently, many people do not even know their phones are “Fake”. So it goes by that most people using the so called “Fake” phones are the poor in our society. The biggest question is not even why they are in possession of fake phones but who authorized them to be imported into the Kenyan market? Where was the government organ of CCC when these phones were coming to Kenya? Moreover, what does it matter whether the phone is fake or original? Consider this, when the CCK was registering all the SIMs it was in a bid to curb misuse of mobile phones, so whether you are using an original or fake phone, the cutline is, only the SIM card matters not the mobile phone. Suppose two phones are sharing the same IMEI Number, what criteria will they use to know which among the two phones is fake or not? I don’t trust the CCK on this issue.

Also consider a case like where Waititu was quoted as inciting people ethnically.  He was released on a cash bail of a sum of money which any poor man will probably never handle in his entire life. So again a question arises, suppose a poor man did that, what would be his fate? Can we comfortably say that you can shake the hands of justice if you are rich but the same hand of justice will crush you if you are poor and mess with the law?

When a crackdown is made upon the PSV vehicles to remove the unroad worthy cars from the road, most matatus that carry people at an affordable fare are removed from the road. The remaining PSVs hike fare in a bid to take advantage of the situation. But the rich will be travelling in their comfortable Private vehicles, and will hardly feel the pinch.

We live in a rich man’s world where the poor gets affected by almost anything that happens in the society.

The poor has many avenues of letting in sufferings into his life and it’s a fact we have to live with. The only hope for the poor is God and God alone.