Gods and Kings

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ~ St Paul's First Epistle to the Church in Corinth, 13:11

What did you make of the spectre of grown-assed men and women in the school uniforms of children, ostensibly making the point that the education of children and the protection of the employment rights of teachers were their stock in trade on that particular Wednesday? It would have been believable if the run-up to that display of juvenility had not been marred by the disturbing image of a grown-assed man with a massive red lollipop in his mouth declaiming with gusto something about his mummy, or the smug refusal by a grown-assed woman to accept that the institution of which she is a member is the principal reason why everyone wants a fat cheque from the government every month, teachers included.

It is stated, over and over, by Kenya's political leadership that their leadership is ordained by God Himself. The people who hearken to the blasphemous words of the politicians should remember Samauel's admonition ot the Israelites when they demanded a king for themselves, like other nations.

¹⁰ And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. ¹¹ And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. ¹² And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. ¹³ And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. ¹⁴ And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. ¹⁵ And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. ¹⁶ And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. ¹⁷ He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. ¹⁸ And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. ~ 1 Samuel 8

It is for this reason that when our leaders debase themselves in the agora, offer expiation to false gods, lie with impunity, engage in the most licentious behaviour, and do all this without an ounce of shame, that we must ask ourselves whether we have committed an unspeakable sin against the universe for it to shaft us so royally.

The dispute between teachers and their government offered the opportunity for the self-proclaimed God's Anointed Ones to sit down and reason as adults, not engage in the brinkmanship that children engage in when they are discovering themselves. All the parties involved behaved atrociously, some more than others. Neither will bend because neither thinks of the children or the future; all are thinking only of their embarassment. None of them, as St Paul asks, has put away childish things, including their hubris. We will suffer more because of these "kings" and not even all the gods we pray to will intervene.