ALBERT NYAKUNDI: Suicide not an option, keep fighting

After leaving college in 1999, my friend Chosipat Nyangeti had big dreams. Job search led him to almost every town in Kenya. Unable to land any, and incapable of setting up a decent business, he began to understand the many economic ills that afflicted his beloved nation: Unemployment, injustice, inequality, tribalism, corruption and shortage of everything but misery.

May be higher education would bail him from the poverty hole, he thought. He returned to school and did a master’s in business management in 2002. Although he graduated from one of the prestigious universities, no job opportunity was forthcoming. In 2004, he relocated to Nairobi.

In desperation, but with his integrity intact, he picked up lowly jobs like unclogging sewers and trench digging. There is no employer that did not receive Chosipat’s application. Since he had no godfather or godmother, luck was not on his side. Despite the difficulties, not to him, any route that led to crime.

After hitting 40, he sought a spouse who bore him three children. As the pressure of responsibilities weighed heavily on him given the meagre income, Chosipat developed hypertension. He had no insurance. He had no money to manage his deteriorating condition. Every day he watched and read stories about politicians stealing billions from the public coffers. The more he saw thieves go scot-free, the more his blood pressure shot up.

In 2006, he had a stroke that hit his right side. Because he wouldn’t sit back and watch his family suffer helplessly, he tied a rope to the rafter of a nearby uncompleted building and ended his story. He left behind a wife, three kids, relatives and true friends like me. He also left behind the agony of living in an unjust country – a country peopled with humans who worship money and despise good men and women who are less privileged. Above all, he left behind a sad story shared by all unlucky Kenyans.

The situation Chosipat faced is one that numerous Kenyan face daily. Things are getting unbearably tough in this country. The stories of Kenyans who got fed up with the difficult situation and decided to take their own lives and those of their loved ones are common. Because most of them happen among the poor, very few are reported in the media.

Kenya is bleeding from all openings. The number of vulnerable Kenyans is mushrooming. Young jobless people are wasting away in the cities. Unable to afford proper meals and medication, many are wasting quietly. Well educated young men have opened themselves as willing tools and turned thugs for crooked politicians. Beautiful well-groomed young women cannot marry because men are financially unstable, hence unready to marry them.

Kenyans are doing dangerous jobs because their needs keep increasing as their income dwindles. These young men and women who are frequently subjected to deprivation are candidates for mental hospitals. They try to pretend that all is well even as they die in instalments. Seventy per cent of people who live below the poverty line have become nervous wrecks. With no food, no good health, no sleep; they are always thinking of what to do to survive.  

Very few Kenyan homes are happy when the man of the house is broke and the woman is loaded. Considering our economic situation, most legitimate salaries cannot provide food and pay for decent accommodation in this city. That is why many opt to cut corners just to try and ‘make it’.

As they say, it takes a lot of maturity for a man to be patient while the wife nags. It calls for wisdom for a poor family man to remain calm and tolerate verbal attacks from his wife. Our women forget that having integrity is better than having wealth from questionable sources. Nonetheless, men must remember that when a marriage is unhappy, it should not be kept at all cost and by all means.

It is understandable, though inexcusable, when a man takes his life because he cannot stand watching his children crying or dying of hunger. Nobody knows what the future holds. A nutritionist once told me that a human being can survive without eating and drinking for 45 days. So, why not hold on, may be help will come on the 40th day. 

Our leaders, those men and women who control the resources of the nation, must give their fellow compatriots hope. Even as they keep increasing their salaries beyond what the mind can imagine, they should be cognisant of the fact that the poor will reach a dead end and turn against them. These oppressors should choose between letting their fellow Kenyans live and facing the anger of the oppressed.

The writer sells bananas in the streets of Kisii town [email protected]