Youngster Killed By Roadside While Seeking Cash To Help Feed Family

One of the sad things that has happened in Kenya over the years is that the prosperous middle class has virtually disappeared and today we have a totally different set up. We now have 3 classes, namely those who have absolutely nothing, those who have enough to get in debt and the filthy rich (with a big emphasis on the “filthy” because of the way they earned their money).

What is really dangerous is that the two more privileged classes of Kenyans know very little about how the lowest class of Kenyans live and have little interest in finding out. The less privileged Kenyans naturally make up for the vast majority.

There are a number of slums that have sprung up adjacent to Nairobi’s Industrial area the most prominent being the Mukuru series (Kwa Njenga and Kwa Nganga).

The way of life for these struggling Kenyans was highlighted last week when a standard four pupil, the son of a Ms Ann Kiboi met a horrific death from a freak accident that saw a heavy trailer tip over and crush him to death. At the time of the accident, the trailer, which was carrying Mineral water was turning into Enterprise Road. What irony because this is one product that the Kiboi family can never ever dream of affording. Yet clean drinking water is a very serious problem in the Mukuru slums.

The boy was out selling groundnuts and at the time of the accident was stationed at the junction of Enterprise Road and Mombasa Road.

Yet another young Kenyan life snuffed out. A young Standard four pupil has no reason being out there hustling for cash. But then the grim reality of life in the slums leaves them with few options. The sad truth is that the youngster is probably better off dead than alive. In his brief life, he lived with no running water or proper toilet facilities. No electricity for him to do his homework at the end of a long tiring day of going to school and then making his usual rounds selling groundnuts. Chances are that he felt hungry most of the times. The sort of dreary life that is extremely difficult to escape. Cynics and pessimists would argue that the youngster would have grown up to be an illicit brews addict or some criminal to be gunned down by police one typical Nairobi night. Mercifully, they would say, he died more honorably than he would have had he lived longer. A very cruel thing to say but you can see where they are coming from.

But then this blogger is optimistic that Kenyan voters will make a statement for a new beginning and change the direction of this country in 2007. So if you look at the whole thing more positively, it is sad that the youngster did not live long enough to at least have a fighting chance.

Poverty eradication is a commonly used word in policy statements by the government but very little is being done to address this issue. If anything more concerted efforts are being made to ensure that poverty increases for years to come. When a government promotes mega financial scandals like Anglo-leasing and Goldenberg, the massive amounts of cash involved that are released into the economy without any justification fan inflation. Guess who gets hurt the most.

In the early 1990s we saw poor Kenyans who had been saving for years having their savings wiped out virtually overnight when the Goldenberg cash flooded the market. All of a sudden Kshs 50,000 could no longer buy that posho mill that this poor Kenyan had been saving for years to purchase.

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