On a baking (read sunny) Saturday afternoon, I board
a bus headed to the central business district. The vehicle is packed almost to
capacity and I have no choice but to head to the back seats and find a seat
next to two slender girls who seem to be in their early twenties. I thank my
ancestors for actually getting a comfortable seat since I bet some of you know
what discomfort comes with sitting next to a plus-sized person. Don’t get me
wrong, I have nothing against people who have eaten well or those born with
‘big’ genes so to speak; but I take issue with the owners of these public
service vehicles (PSVs) for having seats which cannot accommodate everybody.
For instance, a couple of my tall friends can only
sit on the front seats of the 14-seater matatus because their long legs cannot
fit if they take the rest of the seats. Likewise, some of those seats are too tiny;
it’s as if they were designed for the slender section of the demographic only.
I mean, even a medium sized person like yours truly has to squeeze in to fit into
some of those seats! That is why I envy people who have Double-Ms that commute
to their estates. Damn! Those buses are so comfortable, with the seats big
enough for people of all body sizes. They are much better than some of the long
distance PSVs, a good number them being unworthy road vehicles. Disclaimer: I’m
not public relations personnel of the bus service; I’m just giving credit where
it’s due.
Anyway, back to my initial intention of this post.
Good heavens! How much have I digressed?! Never mind. So, as I make myself
comfortable on the seat and remove my pair of sunglasses and place them in a
case, I hear the two slender girls having a conversation that sounds
interesting.
Girl #1 seated next to the window goes like “I think
Lebanon is better than Qatar. Huko Mary analipwa I think between 20K and 30K.
Si kama Saudi Arabia.”
Girl #2 who is next to me responds very fast. “Ati
20K? After kuenda huko kwote? She’d have been better off staying here in
Kenya.”
“You may be right. But what do you expect the
desperate youth to do? Huku Kenya hata kupata works ya 5K ni mezesha,” says Girl
#1.
“Unajua the unemployment situation in Kenya inafanya
ma-youth kuwa frustrated. Wadhii waki-imagine all those years they’ve been
jobless after completing school, wanakuwa disillusioned; so they take anything
that comes along,” she continues.
All this time, I’m scrolling through my Twitter
timeline on my phone, though I’m a passive participant of that conversation. I
start thinking about Girl #1’s last remarks.
My thoughts are quickly disrupted by Girl #2.
“Enyewe hapo uko na point. But si hapa Kenya you can get a job that pays
equally the same?”
“Mi naku-show desperate times call for desperate
measures. Sasa itafika 2030 kama mtu bado anangoja hiyo job?” Girl #1 asks.
Girl #2 seems to ponder over her friend’s sarcastic
question. Then she seems to be softening her stand and says: “Si mbaya by the
way kama mtu atamake some savings. Kama hana expenses za rent, transport ama
food, anaweza chukua job ya 30K coz maximum expenses hapo ni kama 5K za
tumafuta na other personal effects.”
At this point, I conclude that the Mary they are
talking about must be a house help of some family, if not a gardener, which I
highly doubt.
“By the way ukipata family poa unaweza fanya works
poa tu bila tafash na u-save kitu five years,” remarks Girl #1.
“Hapo ni ukweli,” Girl #2 says “.. lakini mimi
personally Saudi Arabia siwezi kanyanga. After all those horror stories we’ve
been seeing in the media?!”
“True,” Girl #1 agrees. “Siku hizi ma-destinations
ni mob: Lebanon, Dubai, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Qatar, Palestine na hiyo Saudi
Arabia.”
“That reminds me,” says Girl #2 “Niliskia Roba siku
hizi ni driver Afghanistan. I hear he’s sending good money to his family.”
“Roba mgani?” enquires Girl #1.
“Ule Roba m-tall alikuwa dere ile ma3 ilikuwa
inaitwa Bonkers,” her friend tells her.
“Good for him. Huko naskia kuna mkwanja kushinda
Qatar,” Girl #1 says.
I thought Qatar is the best paying country in the
Arab league, I think to myself. I start remembering quite a number of people I
know who left very lucrative jobs in Kenya to go work in Qatar.
“Mimi nashukia hii stage,” Girl #2 says as she gets
up.
“Poa, nitakuvutia wire juu ya hiyo story,” Girl #1
tells her friend as she waves goodbye.
I make way for Girl #2 to pass and she alights in a
huff. Girl #1 removes her phone from her bag and starts Facebooking or whatever
it was that she was doing. I return mine to my handbag and I start pondering
over that conversation that they had.
The unemployment situation in the country seems to
be worsening, evidenced by the thousands of Kenyans who are making a mass
exodus to other countries, particularly Arab countries. From the American
dream, have we now moved to the Arab dream? These people may be gardeners, house
helps, drivers or cleaners; but at the end of the day, they are earning
something for themselves, a big percentage of which is remitted back home.
It’s unfortunate that there are some cases of the
Kenyan immigrants being mistreated in those foreign lands. What happens to them
should never happen to any human being.
The other unfortunate thing that happens in this
country is the brain drain. You hear of doctors who are offered better perks in
other countries while in the evening bulletin you’ll see footage of hospitals
that don’t have adequate medical personnel.
What is the government doing to try and reduce the
statistics of unemployed youth? I pose this question because we all know that
these are the same youth who’ll get frustrated and get into crime or start
drowning their sorrows in alcohol, with quite a chunk of them going for the
illicit brew which is what they can afford anyway.
Others will get married with no stable source of
income, save for the few menial jobs here and there. They’ll still continue
partaking in the frothy waters of illicit brew and will be unable to provide
for their families, leave alone the inability to perform their conjugal duties.
The effects of this will be weird news of kindergartens and primary schools
being closed down for lack of kids to enroll; while women with years of anger and
frustration vent out by physically abusing their spouses.
So, I guess the desperate Kenyans can take a chance
and pursue the Arab dream?
